August 5, 2010

By Stephanie Kohl

Coming from all over the country, 25 students spent two weeks at Lake Forest College for the iD Gaming Academy hosted by California-based internalDrive.

The Gaming Academy offered students ages 13-18 a two-week experience in the world of video game development. The beginner students take one of four courses offered, including 3D modeling and animation with Maya, programming for game consoles, 3D level design – Unreal Engine 3, or Flash scripting for Web games.

The teens left the camp, which ran July 18-30, with a gaming portfolio and tools to excel in the expanding game development field. Students were also given studio tours to see first-hand how industry professionals create games.

Sam Nesbit, an 18-year-old Lake Bluff resident, has attended iD camps for the past five summers. This year, he enrolled in the camp to focus on programming for game consoles, where he worked on a Pong-style game. Just to create the two paddles of the game, Nesbit needed about 130 lines of coding. Prior to enrolling in the camp, all Nesbit knew was what the code looked like.

“I want to learn the programming language,” he said.

Kyle Davison, a 14-year-old Carmel, Ind. resident, said learning about coding has given him a new appreciation for all the work that goes into making a video game exciting.

“(The hardest part) is getting everything done right and not miscoding anything,” Davison said.

Evanston resident Noah Grosshandler, 15, enrolled in the 3D level design course of the camp, where he spent time modifying the award-winning game Unreal Tournament 3.

“I enjoy gaming and I kind of wanted to see what happens behind the scenes,” Grosshandler said.

During the camp, Grosshandler focused on creating a new level for the game. Beginning with an empty grid, he worked with Unreal Engine 3 to place features, like pillars and lights, available to designers. Eventually, his grid would look like a room in the game.

“I’m not sure anything will ever be done,” he said. “There’s always something that can be tweaked.”

Grosshandler said it has been fun to spend his time with people who share his interests and can have intelligent conversations about video games and gaming.

Part of camp involves lots of open gaming, especially in the evening, but the students work hard on their respective programs.

“We try to get them all to a place that when they leave here, they can continue on,” said Tom Miecznikowski, director of the iD Gaming Academy at Lake Forest College.

Miecznikowski said the students will leave camp not only having the technology and programming background, but they’ll also have samples of their work, created with tools used in the industry.

“This is serious training,” he said. “They’re getting ahead.”

August 5, 2010

By Sally Applegate

July 27, 2010

By Michael H. Hodges

Remember this: In a world where computers run everything, nerds rule.

So you might think the 31 kids glued to glowing screens last week at the Ann Arbor summer camp run by iD Tech, a company out of California’s Silicon Valley, were just a bunch of campers who prefer computers to campfires. But you would be wrong.

These are future masters of the universe, acquiring sophisticated programming skills in video-game design with Flash and Maya animation and other programs that most adults who design games don’t get under their belts until they hit college or the professional world.

The campers wore their nerdiness with a cheerful swagger.

“Oh yeah, I’m definitely a nerd,” said Alex Eichner, 15, a camper from Alexandria, Va. “No doubt about it.”

The week-long program was one of seven iD Tech sponsored this summer at the University of Michigan, as well as at other universities around the country. The last U-M session begins Sunday and winds up Aug. 8. Spots are still available. (See box, 2C.)

Last week, all the campers happened to be boys. Camp officials say most courses generally attract a few girls, at least, though they concede — video games being something of a male province — that they’re outnumbered.

This digital world comes with its own rarefied geek vocabulary — anyone over 30 might want to bring a translator. “Modders” modify existing games to their specifications, “actionscripting” or coding the landscape with “doodads” or “static mesh” — both terms for the physical details like cars, lamps or rocks that make a virtual world look realistic, all of which has to be painstakingly programmed.

For his part, Eichner was mapping the layout and geography for a “Warcraft 3″ video game he’s adapting to loosely resemble Capture the Flag.

“I’m making the heroes,” he said, while two of his teenage colleagues nearby worked on other details.

“It’s a lot of work,” Eichner said. “I have to tell the program how strong the heroes are and define aspects of their power. Are they fast? Do they fight up front with a sword? Do they have magic abilities?

“Then I have to balance them,” he added, “so they’re evenly matched.”

Lead instructor Finn Haverkamp, 23, said he majored in creative writing in college and acquired most of his computer skills on his own.

But he stressed the similarity between game design and the writing process — a lesson he passed along to the campers.

“Writing,” he said, with a nod to Eichner’s labors, “is all about revision. And game design is like that.”

Camp director Micki Woodford, 35, said this year iD Tech leaned on kids to come up with strong plots for their games and characters.

“The writing was really emphasized in our training,” she said. “Every camper has to submit a storyline in writing before we start making characters.”

Eichner was working in a 2-D universe — essentially designing games that bear some resemblance to the old Mario Brothers, where two characters compete or duke it out on screen.

In a nearby room, 13-year-old Adam Alpert from Farmington Hills was busy modifying “Half-Life,” a hugely popular 3-D game that puts the player right in the middle of the action.

It’s a “first-person shooter” game — meaning the player appears to move around just like in real life, seeing the world through his eyes. (That’s what they mean by “3-D.” No funny glasses are involved, and the computer images themselves are not three-dimensional.)

But as in real life, you don’t see your whole body because your eyes can’t take all of it in. Instead, in Alpert’s game, the shooter’s arms and hands are visible at the start, just as they would be when we look down.

It is, as he acknowledged with a grin full of braces, a “blood-and-guts game” where bad guys’ heads explode in a shower of red when you hit them. So it’s no surprise that iD Tech restricts enrollment in 3-D design to 13 years old and older.

In Alpert’s virtual universe, the player starts in a house.

“You want to get out the door,” he said, “but it’s blocked. So you get a crowbar, break the window, and from there you pretty much go into the city, passing downed houses, wrecked cars and burnt-out stuff.

“But, I haven’t got that far.”

He’d have to hurry. He had only three more days before the end of camp.

iD Tech camps

Got a computer whiz who’d like to polish her or his skills? There are still openings for the last week of high-tech computer design camp at the University of Michigan run by iD Tech.

Ages: 7 to 17; 3-D design classes limited to 13 and older

Cost: $779: one-week day camper; $1,249: one-week overnight camper

More information: Call (888) 709-8324 or visit www.internaldrive.com

mhodges@detnews.com (313) 222-6021

July 25, 2010

by Erich Schwartzel

They sure don’t make summer camps like they used to

July 24, 2010

By George Ma

Ray gun-wielding aliens from a distant planet unleash a barrage of blaster fire on gargantuan, varicolored jellyfish on a two-dimensional cosmic battlefield – all driven by a series of rapid mouse clicks and spacebar taps.

From his seat in front of a 19-inch computer monitor, a young boy turns, a look of glee painted clearly across his face. He motions his instructor over to witness the success of his new video game, which he had programmed just hours before.

At iD Tech Camps, kids ages 7 to 17 study gaming, film, and graphic design. Weeklong sessions at UC Irvine began June 27 and run through Aug. 20.

During the course, students use cutting edge equipment and software to create 2D and 3D video games, design websites with Flash, edit digital movies, write computer coding with C++ and Java, and turn their creative ideas into iPhone apps. The curriculum is hands-on and project-based.

“This camp is too good to be true,” said Kanishka Vatsa, 9. “I get to make my own game.”

Vatsa’s games, “Link the Hero of Dreams” and “World of Wonder,” feature a hero who battles through fiery, lava-filled landscapes while jumping over obstacles and other things that a 9-year-old would find exciting.

“We try not to walk them through every step, but to let them create things on their own,” director Greg Hulet said.

Each student works on his or her own computer and an average of six students are assigned to each instructor. iD Tech Camps also expose students to university life, as courses are held on campus and meals are served in the cafeteria. Those who are overnight campers sleep in on-campus dorms.

Most of the students hail from Orange County. Some, however, flew in from as far as Shanghai. Students Linde Wang and Yue Yue “Sapphire” Hou, both 15, came from China to attend iD Tech Camp.

“We came to learn how to use Photoshop and improve our English,” Hou said.

No matter where a student is from, attending iD Tech Camp keeps the mind mentally engaged – a concern that many parents have for their kids during the summer months.

“We’ll teach you how to make a box, then how to program that box to do other things,” Hulet said. “You can come in knowing nothing and still produce something good by the end of the week.”

Pasha Dastmalchi, 11, will be camping with iD Tech for five straight weeks.

“I’m taking different courses each week. This week, I’m doing graphic design. I’m doing Java and C++ next, then game editing, and probably iPhone app development as well,” Dastmalchi said.

iD Tech Camps is in its 12th season at UCI. The camp is part of a nationwide summer camp program that has hosted more than 100,000 students and one of many different types of summer camps offered in Orange County.

For more information visit www.internalDrive.com.

Contact the writer: gma@ocregister.com

Original article can be found here: ocregister.com

Hi All! Summer is in full swing and I’ve been super busy touring iD Tech Camps all over the nation! I’d like to take this time to share with you one of my favorite iD Tech Camp traditions, one that is unique to our Princeton location, in fact, one that I helped to start!

In 2005 I was an instructor iD Princeton teaching Web Design & Flash Animation. The bottom floor of our dorm had a lot of free space and it occurred to me that having a dance party is a great way to end a day of hard work at a computer! Several trips to a party store later, we had outfitted the space as a nightclub, rigged a laptop into a modest DJ booth and iDisco Tech was born. I was excited to see that the tradition is still going STRONG and campers and staff are still having a blast! Enjoy these pics!

Keep partying Princeton!

The fun doesn’t stop there!  Make sure to check out all the cool photos from our Summer camps in New York, our Computer camps in Massachusetts, our Illinois summer camps and our Canadian Film School!

July 22, 2010

Amanda Maurer has found a way to make endangered species come alive on her computer screen.

In her second week at iD Tech Camp, a private computer technology course at California State University, Sacramento, the 13-year-old is building an interactive website about endangered marine creatures like the Maui dolphin.

July 20, 2010

By George Richards

Kid Wizards: Camp teaches children tech skills

July 18, 2010

By Sara Sonne Lenz

iD Tech Camp prepares St. Louis youths for future