A bottom-up approach to programming can help us with understanding the basics and lay a solid foundation before trying to tackle a large problem. Think of a video game or board game. Instead of having an idea at the beginning of exactly how the game should be played (and how the player could win), you are going to think about the pieces of the game that you want to develop. First, think of the small aspects, or components, of the game. Maybe you’re envisioning building a video game. Do you want your game to have amazing graphics with life-like animals? You could use “life-like animals” as a module at the bottom level of your design. Or maybe you’re thinking about a cool, new board game where players have the opportunity to sabotage another player’s castle. That’s an idea that could be a module at the bottom level of your design.

Come up with 8-10 bottom-level modules for your game. Remember, they should be specific and form the building blocks for a bigger game that could be designed.

Now, group together some of your modules into a broader module. For example, you could group together specific ideas about life-like animals, music, and colors from your video game design into a bigger module called “graphics.” You should make sure that each sub-module gets grouped into a bigger module.

Keep grouping your modules until you are ready to end with an overall game title.