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As appeared in the Pioneer Press – Teens flock to LFC to learn video game development by Stephanie Kohl

August 5th, 2010 by Ryan

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.

iD Gaming Academy at Lake Forest College is a new summer program that teaches students some of the basics of gaming design. Sam Nesbit of Lake Bluff (above) discusses the program.
(Joe Cyganowski/for Sun-Times Media)

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.

Lots of coding

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.

‘Can be tweaked’

“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.”