Senior creates own video game

In a world where only one man remains, that man must find a seed and plant it to grow a tree that will give off enough energy to rebuild the lost human race before the world is lost forever. 

That is the plot of “Appleseed,” a video game created by Neshoba Central High School senior Logan Flowers who recently won first place in the video game category of the statewide Technology Student Association competition. 

“Appleseed” follows a nameless character who is trying to save humanity in a world with two supreme beings, a friendly being who created the human race and an evil being who destroyed the human race and wants to destroy the rest of the world.

The player embarks on an adventure to find a seed that, when planted, would create a tree that gives off enough energy for the kind supreme being to recreate the human race. The player is given a task to go through levels, collect items and find the seed. 

Flowers has been interested in video games since he was in the sixth grade and watched YouTube videos about the worldwide smash-hit game Minecraft, a game where players explore an expansive world while mining for materials and use those materials to survive and build whatever their hearts desire.

“Sixth-grade was when I really got into video games. Some of the YouTube videos I watched showed mods of Minecraft, and I wanted to make mods of my own for the game,” Flowers said. 

A video game mod is an alteration by players or fans of one or more aspects of a video game, such as how it looks or behaves. Mods can range from small changes and tweaks to complete overhauls that can extend the replay value and interest of the game. 

“While I was watching videos on how to make Minecraft mods, YouTube recommended videos to me about Unity, a 3D game programming software,” Flowers said. “After watching videos on that, I decided I wanted to learn how to use Unity.” 

Flowers did learn to use Unity and it is the program he used to make “Appleseed,” which he said overall development took approximately four months.

A lot of work went into the development besides the code, Flowers said, including work such as making the sound effects for the game. He said that for some sounds, he used the sound of jeans rubbing together or rolling a log across leaves to produce the sounds in the game. 

“There’s an explosion sound effect in the game as well, and to emulate that sound, I threw a basketball against a backboard and also jumped in a stairwell,” he said. “Those sounds were meshed together and edited to make the explosion sound in the game.”

“Appleseed” was the game Flowers submitted for the statewide Technology Student Association competition in which Neshoba Central participated this year along with 38 other high schools throughout the state. 

The Technology Student Association is a national organization of students engaged in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education. Flowers was among 15 other students at Neshoba Central who won awards during the state-level TSA conference. 

The TSA National Conference, in which Flowers will be participating in June, is held in different states each year but is being held virtually this year due to the pandemic.  

TSA competitions include categories such as animatronics, architectural design, cybersecurity, fashion design and technology. It spans nationwide with high schools from throughout the nation competing to see who can create the best project out of each category. 

Flowers said that since last year’s competition was canceled, he was even more motivated this year to create the best product he could since he knew the competition this year was on and is being held virtually.

“Last year’s competition opened me up a bit and got me used to this kind of environment,” he said. “I was disappointed when it ended up being canceled. When I found out I won first place in the state competition this year, I was ecstatic. As game developers, especially since we’re not professionals, we are always worried that our work won’t be good enough since the game design is pretty complicated.”

Flowers said he wants to pursue either a computer design or an engineering degree and plans to start at East Central Community College first before going on to Mississippi State University. 

“I want to say thank you to Neshoba Central, my family and everyone else who helped me along the way,” Flowers said. 

Sedera Anderson, engineering and robots instructor at Neshoba Central, has been teaching Flowers for three years and won TSA Teacher of the Year. She has worked closely with Flowers and the rest of the students who competed in the TSA competition. 

“I’ve taught Logan Engineering I and II, and he was an intern for the engineering program here at Neshoba Central,” Anderson said. “He is a very exceptional young man, and I am very proud of him. I have gotten close to him over the past three years, so it was like watching my child accomplish his goals.” 

Anderson said the national TSA competition will happen on June 23, 24 and 25, and Flowers must have his game submitted by May 14. 

“Students need to look over their work and make any tweaks they need to for the national level,” she said. “I am very excited for Logan, as he is very passionate about what he is doing, and he is going to go very far with his abilities.”

To learn more about the Technology Student Association competition, visit www.tsaweb.org.