Video game created from NKES 3rd grader’s journal

Sol “Adrian” Vidal displays the journal entry and illustrations that inspired the creation of his own video game.

Andre' Jones photos

Look out Nintendo©; there’s a new game creator in the business. And he’s only in third grade.

New Kent Elementary School student Adrian Vidal has accomplished something that takes most people a lifetime to do– create his own video game. The third grader’s ideas became reality at the end of February after a local resident took his ideas and converted them into a playable game.

What started out as a summer reading initiative by New Kent Elementary teacher Rebecca Cooper quickly transpired into

Adrian’s ideas blooming into something that is now enjoyed by all his classmates.

“The kids were journaling during the summer and working on the six writing traits,” Cooper said. “The kids would receive journal topics and then they could have their own prompt.

“The class began sharing their entries around December and Adrian’s stories were just amazing to the students,” added Cooper.

Adrian spoke about his passion for writing and his enjoyment for expressing his imagination through pictures.

“I like writing because you can make up all the things and you can draw pictures,” he said, flipping page by page through his journal. “I like to share it with my classmates and they enjoy the words and they laugh because it’s funny.”

Those stories intrigued students, with many of them mentioning that it would be unique for Adrian’s ideas to become a video game.

“That’s when another one of my students, Kaitlynn Payne, spoke up and told the class her father was a video game designer,” chimed in Cooper. “She asked Adrian to borrow his journal and take it home to show her father.”

Adrian, who Cooper described as shy, had no problem sharing his ideas.

“I gave my journal to her to take home and thought it would be neat,” he said.

Apparently, his ideas were more than just neat. Brian Payne, Kaitlynn’s father, spoke about Adrian’s creativity and the ability the third-grader has to express through words and pictures.

“When I first read through Adrian’s journal, I was amazed at the details,” said the web programmer. “The notebook was almost cover-to-cover with these wonderful stories and almost every page was filled with intricate illustrations and details.”

Payne said he spent the next morning laughing at the journal stories. Intrigued, he presented his idea to a multimedia artist on his team. After initial amazement, the idea spread among his team members and ideas began to formulate to pursue production.

“When I came across the story about the volcano and the exploding doughnuts, I decided it would work well for a game,” continued the designer. “I had ideas popping into my head and how the game could be built around that story.”

When asked why Payne undertook the task to create the game, he said it was to open up the ability for Adrian to pursue game design as a career.

“Around 13, I was playing a computer video game that had the developer tools with it,” continued Payne. “After a while, I started to learn to write my own stories and scenarios.

“With Adrian’s writing and illustration skills, the sky is the limit to him,” the designer continued. “I want the passion to stay with him to lead him to many wonderful opportunities in life.”

And when the third grader first received the game, he was shocked and utterly pleased. His words and illustrations from his notebook were now on a CD and playable.

“I was happy and have played it over and over,” said Adrian. “I could see my drawings and my stories and it is so much fun.”

The third-grader demonstrated the game, complete with his animations, story text, ideas, and even a giant donut boss. But don’t expect this to be the last of Adrian’s games, as he continuously pumps out ideas.

“I can’t wait to see more about Jurassic Jackrabbits and Kickback Kangaroo,” said Vidal, unknowingly taking the concept of alliteration from Cooper’s teachings.

Cooper said that Payne plans to provide copies of Adrian’s game to the entire class, hoping to inspire them to continue to follow their dreams. But as for Adrian, his message to others focuses on receiving support from fellow students.

“My classmates enjoy my writings and I do it because they like it,” he concluded.

Now, those classmates share in both Adrian’s passion in writing and playing his game.

Adrian takes a quick break from schoolwork to demonstrate his game based off his illustrations and text from journal entries.