Chance the Rapper Enlists Chicago Students to Code ‘I Love You So Much’ Video Game
Written by Althea Legaspi for Rolling Stone. Check out the original article here
Chance the Rapper has unveiled the official new video for his collaborative track with DJ Khaled, “I Love You So Much.” It comes in the form of a video game called SuperMe, which was coded and designed by Chicago Public School students.
“In 2017, with CS4All, Scratch, and a little help from Google, we told hundreds of kids from the South Side of Chicago they could do anything with code,” Chance wrote in a blog post about the project on Monday. “Since then, we’ve been busy with teacher training, hosting family creative coding nights, and getting the whole community excited about what’s possible with code.
“Now the kids are coding. Seven elementary schools spent a bunch of time creating a game and drawing themselves as superheroes — that can fly! That can teleport! That collect hearts. All using code,” he continued. “A few weeks ago, I saw their incredible work and am so proud of them that I decided their projects should be seen by the entire world… So today, the first day of Computer Science Education Week, I present you with — SuperMe, the official video game for ‘I Love You So Much’ (because anyone can make a music video).”
The game features the student-created superheroes modeled after themselves, who fly through the cityscape collecting hearts. The video opens with a description: “Superheroes come in all shapes and sizes. We all possess the power to be a hero. Take a journey with our Chicago Public School heroes.” The game is soundtracked to “I Love You So Much.”
A programming activity called “Code Your Hero” that takes inspiration from the Chicago students’ creation was launched on Tuesday and is available for students and teachers to use.
In 2017, Google gave a $1.5 million grant to Chance’s SocialWorks and CS4All and on Monday the company donated another $250,000 to the initiative.