As appeared in The Ventura County Star – article about video game creation at our CA summer camps

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As appeared in Park Cities People…

As appeared in The Ventura County Star – article about video game creation at our CA summer camps

July 8th, 2010 by: Elise

CLU camp teaches kids to create video games

By Sigourney Nuñez

Imagine a small, yellow creature with a horn on the crown of its head for a mouth, chomping away on a variety of spinning fruit. Its sole purpose is to eat all the produce that surrounds it in order to proceed to the next level.

That’s the concept behind a video game that Abigail Cohen, 7, of Woodland Hills developed at iD Tech Camp at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.

“I created him when you pass it, it says, ‘You won, partner,’ ” she said.

Abigail is one of many digital kids across the country participating in the 12th annual camp season hosted by iD Tech Camp. The camp offers six summer programs at universities, giving kids from 7 to 17 hands-on opportunities to explore computer software. It’s the same software professionals use to produce all types of tech projects.

CLU has hosted the program for nine years. The school offers six camp sessions, each a week long.

Participants have the opportunity to create 2-D and 3-D video games, create Flash animation, build robots, develop graphics portfolios and create virtual worlds.

Avery Scanlon was new to the concept of video game designs when he first attended the camp two years ago. The 12-year-old from Thousand Oaks said he now knows a bit more beyond the basics of computer navigation.

“It’s a really good camp; it shows you what you need to know in order to achieve what you want,” Avery said. “Computers can open up a whole new world of imagination.”

The program sets up a friendly and welcoming environment for kids.

“The teachers are very helpful, you don’t get teased here, and if you like computers this is the perfect place to come,” said Matzke Mason, 15, of Ojai, who was working on a virtual map for a first-person shooter game.

Kenn Gorman, program director, said a number of kids who attend the camp have been involved with it for several years. Even the counselors are former iD Tech campers.

Peter Sylvester, 20, a computer science major at CSU Channel Islands, was a camper for five years and is now an instructor.

“You want to make games with them,” he said, “but it’s rewarding when you see kids make games on their own.”

Gorman said the program stresses giving kids the liberty to figure out how to manage the software so that they can be proud of the finished product.

“Once they say they can do this, we just kind of let them go,” he said.

Aside from the technical curriculum, the kids also take time from the day to play games outside.

“I like that we’re not on the computer all the time,” said Julia Cohen, 13, of Woodland Hills. She was working on Flash animation.

At the end of every session, the kids are able to go home with a finished product. All the projects created during the iD Tech Camp can be seen and interacted with at http://basement.internaldrive.com.

Space is available in the three remaining sessions at CLU. For more information, go to http://www.internaldrive.com or call 888-709-TECH (8324).