iD Gaming Academy Summer Camps: Villanova University
Villanova University
- Camp Overview
- About This U & Maps
- About Our Courses
- Tours & Activities
- Faculty & Instruction
- Safety & Peace of Mind
- Testimonials
- FAQ
iD Gaming Academy at Villanova University
iD Gaming Academy, Ages 13-18TWO-WEEKS | CO-ED | RESIDENTIAL ONLY | TEEN ONLY
INTENSIVE EXPERIENCE IN VIDEO GAME DEVELOPMENTCalling all teens…Got game? iD Gaming Academy, the leading summer technology program for teens in the U.S., gives students an immersive, pre-college experience in the dynamic world of game development. The two-week sleep away programs are held at elite universities and taught by faculty with proven video game development credentials. Highlights of the iD Gaming Academy:
- Discover 3D modeling, game programming and level design with industry-grade software
- Learn from elite faculty in small, personalized classes of just 8 students or fewer, guaranteed
- Tour a major game design studio
- Have a blast with our LAN gaming tournaments (not to infringe on instructional time)
- Graduate with an online portfolio (and receive an Official Transcript with Continuing Education Units (optional))
- Win GUNNAR Advanced Gaming Eyewear glasses at each session!
Students can no longer wait until college to start gaining necessary skills in the competitive field of game development. Start building your portfolio here and now. Go to Step 2 for course availability and dates.
Additional Tech Programs at Villanova University
iD Tech Camps, Ages 7-17WEEKLONG | CO-ED | DAY CAMPS | OVERNIGHT CAMPS
COURSE TOPICS: VIDEO GAME DESIGN, PROGRAMMING, APPS, WEB DESIGN, & MOREWe’re celebrating our 12th season as the Philadelphia area’s premier summer computer camp destination. Our popular weeklong day camps and overnight camps at Villanova University boast a maximum of 8 students per instructor (you won’t find Counselors-in-Training or online tutorials at iD) and customized curriculum for beginner to advanced learners. You can register for one or several weeks of our summer camps and experience life on the beautiful Villanova campus! Live in the college dorms! Design a video game! Build a website, program a robot, make your own iPhone® Apps, edit your own video and more with the best brand name products from Adobe®, Apple®, Autodesk®, Microsoft® and beyond.
About Villanova University
NOTE: Our specific location on campus at this Pennsylvania summer camp, along with maps and driving directions, will be found in My Account after you register.
We have chosen the Villanova University campus to host our intensive summer teen camps in the Philadelphia area because it has one of the country’s top engineering educational programs. Consistently ranked the #1 “Best College” in the North by U.S. News and World Report, Villanova is a comprehensive Roman Catholic institution that welcomes students of all faiths and offers a wide variety of degree programs through its four colleges.
The iD Gaming Academy is a one-of-a-kind offering for students seeking to get better at the art and science of game development. The program is intended for high-school-aged students ages 13-18.
General Location: Philadelphia International Airport is located 25 minutes from the Villanova campus, making it an excellent option for our multiple Northeast summer computer camps. The campus is also directly accessible by train. Come check out our Pennsylvania summer camps!
Campus Life & Meals
As part of the full university experience, students will eat in university dining halls and sleep in real dorms. All meals are included.
Big Time Game Development Studios in Pennsylvania
iD Gaming Academy participants will visit the renowned studio CipherPrime. Overall, the local industry is pursuing an aggressive investment and development strategy to gain a national and internationally-recognized reputation for excellence in game design. As an example, The Philadelphia Videogame Growth Initiative (PVGI) is a new initiative started by several game developers and professionals in Philadelphia and surrounding areas. They are seeking to develop a stronghold in Philadelphia to promote top name studios to set up shop in the greater Philadelphia area.
Note: Tour venue may change without notice.
The Next Hot Spot for Gaming?
Philadelphia is ideally located between 5 major video game hubs, which lends it a massive local talent pool. Game studios are delighted to select from the region’s top students with noteworthy portfolios. Recent university graduates are a well-educated, hungry bunch. The Philadelphia area boasts many nearby prestigious universities (over 40 within 30 minutes – and many with new game design and programming degrees), an artistic community, and lower cost of living than Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco – which equates to lower start-up costs for game studios. So, where do you get the relevant skills to start building a game development portfolio before entering college? The answer is the iD Gaming Academy at Villanova University.
About Our Courses
Students use industry-standard applications including Autodesk® Maya®, Adobe® Photoshop®, XNA® for the Xbox 360®, Unreal® Engine 3, and of course some of the latest, most popular commercial video games for instructional purposes and serious game play. This game design camp for teens is taught by top-tier instructors with demonstrated game development skills. Course Details.
Our Courses:
iD Game Studios 101
3D Modeling & Animation with Autodesk® Maya®
Level Design – Unreal® Development Kit
Programming for the Xbox 360®
Game Development for iPhone® amp; Android™ with UnityContinuing Education Credits
Continuing Education Credits at the iD Gaming Academy are available from Stanford Continuing Studies (SCS)*. The credits will go on file at Stanford upon successful completion of a course at the iD Gaming Academy, and a transcript will be mailed out to the participant. Continuing Studies offers a credit awarding transcript generation service to academic programs.
*Note: If attending the iD Gaming Academy held at Villanova, the CEU transcript will be provided by Villanova University.
What are the benefits/objectives of awarding Continuing Education Credits?
- Encourage students to utilize educational resources to meet their personal and educational goals.
- Assist with pre-college advanced placement through proof of related work.
- Demonstrate that the student has completed course content with college-level difficulty.
- Enable individuals to have an accurate source of their current CEU activity with tracked proof of completion (Certified Certificate of Completion) by an accredited University program.
Note: CEUs are not transferable as college credit.
Tours & Activities
Note: We tour a real gaming studio, but studio venues may change without notice.
TOUR: To Be Determined
The iD Gaming Academy held at Villanova University will be taking an off-site excursion to a real game development studio. Check back soon for details.
Activities
Academy activities are as diverse as the teens who attend our programs. After each day's instruction, you'll take time out to socialize, relax, watch movies, play sports, catch up with friends on Facebook, or game in one of our nightly NVIDIA®-hosted gaming tournaments (with hot new titles like Team Fortress® 2). Some highlights from last summer include team-building activities, group game design challenges, human Tower Defense, kickball tournaments, trivia nights, bowling, Settlers of Catan, and more!
Stay the weekend within the session and you will also have the opportunity to tour local points of interest off campus!
Note: Students may be allowed to travel in groups within local boundaries, depending on the restrictions imposed by the university. Our supervising staff will remain in the vicinity to check in with students periodically. Academy students enjoy extra privileges appropriate for their environment and maturity levels. While we maintain standard supervision ratios, teens will feel a sense of freedom.
Gaming Tournaments at the iD Gaming Academy
What better way to learn how commercial games are created than to fire up the most cutting edge titles and play! LAN parties are a big part of what makes the iD Gaming Academy so immersive. With industry leading names like NVIDIA®, Team Fortress® 2, Portal™ 2, Counter-Strike®, Half-Life® 2, Left 4 Dead™ 2, and more, you know you are in for many incredible nights of ducking, dodging and fragging.
Our Computer Gaming Tournaments use some of the hottest and most recognized game titles on the market, and all students will have opportunities for gameplay with local tournaments. We use Valve® Steam® technology and NVIDIA GeForce® gaming cards for peak PC gaming performance. When we need to get out of our chairs for some console action, we’ll break out the Nintendo® Wii or Xbox 360®.
Gaming Tournaments are an exciting element of our teen activities, but do not replace or infringe on instructional time. NOTE: Games in our Gaming Tournaments are rated “T” for Teen and “M” for Mature and are selected at the sole discretion of iD Tech Camps staff.
Faculty & Instruction
The iD Gaming Academy fosters real game development skills, in addition to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) development. Students “learn by doing” through intensive, hands-on instruction. Our classes are small, ensuring personalized instruction and allowing students to move at their own pace.
Our instructors vary from year to year, but here are a few veteran faculty from our Villanova teen camps:
- Andrew: Andrew is a producer and game designer who has worked on various genres of games ranging from AAA Playstation Move Games to Social, Mobile, and even Non-digital games. Andrew went to college at Savannah College of Art and Design and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Interactive Design and Game Development. He started his career in the game industry freelancing for Perpetual Fx Creative and New Zone Games doing game design and production on Mobile and Social Games. Following the completion of those titles, Andrew was hired full time by Perpetual Fx Creative as an Associate Producer and Game Designer. Andrew worked on multiple projects at Perpetual Fx Creative including Rocket Racing League (iPhone), Rocket Racing League HD (iPad), Inception Mindcrime (Android), Top Hand Rodeo Tour, and another PS3 Move Title that can’t be revealed due to NDA.
- Robert: Robert is a freelance digital artist specializing in Game Art with expertise in Maya, Zbrush, Photoshop, Unreal Development Kit and the StarCraft 2 Editor. He has a B.S. in Game Art from Full Sail University, where he graduated as valedictorian, as well as a Computer Science degree from Villanova University. Rob brings a passion for games and a number of years as an IT manager for Guggenheim Partners and Ballard Spahr to his courses at the iD Gaming Academy.
- Mike: A senior at Furman University studying Computer Science, Mike has been excited about teaching and programming since his early teens. At the age of 14, he taught himself how to code, and his passion grew to encompass 11 years of experience programming independent games. His knowledge includes C#, XNA, Python, Java, C++, the Unity3D engine, and many others. Additionally, Mike is a top Computer Science tutor and lab assistant with two and a half years of experience. He is excited to bring his passion for teaching to the iD Gaming Academy.
- Alex: Alex graduated from the University of Advancing Technology where he studied video game development and specialized in game level design and later on branched off into concept art. His career started at Crunchtime Games where he developed levels for the XBLA title Shred Nebula and more recently worked at Veev Interactive. There, he worked on creating serious games for the Singapore government and education program.
- Sean: Sean always had a passion for gaming and art, and has always dreamed that he could one day mix his passions by working in the gaming industry. He graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh with a degree in Game Art and Design, and since then has worked as an instructor to pass on his passion to others. Sean is a returning iD Gaming Academy instructor, and has also been a Curriculum Developer for multiple years. When he isn’t teaching, he works as a 3D artist.
Safety & Peace of Mind
Risk Management
Adult staff and instructors supervise all activities. iD has a policy of never using Counselors-in-Training (CITs).
American Camp Association® Accreditation
iD Tech Camps is accredited by the ACA at multiple locations, meaning we have met over 300 health and safety requirements. All camps follow ACA guidelines.
Background Checks
We conduct criminal background checks, sexual offender background checks, multiple reference checks and identification checks on all summer staff.
CPR & First Aid
All camps have Directors and Staff that are CPR and First Aid Certified.
Testimonials From Villanova University iD Gaming Academy
What Parents Are Saying
“I wish I had known about this sooner. I would have signed my son up when he was 13 and every year after that. It is a great experience for my child and it helped him decide what he wanted to do in his future. James P., parent, Villanova iD Gaming Academy
“Thanks for the great experience. This definitely helped my son in trying to figure out what he wants to do in the future. Pete D., parent, Villanova iD Gaming Academy
“Thank you so much. The staff who manage the program are wonderful. Aimee R., parent, Villanova iD Gaming Academy
“My son really enjoyed modeling; this was his fourth summer at iD Gaming Academy, taking different classes each time; he is still learning new things. David S., parent, Villanova iD Gaming Academy
“Thank you for encouraging my son to continue on the path he wishes to follow for his future career. I also appreciate the discussions he had with the staff in regards to colleges, and how to work towards getting into them. Rebecca R., parent, Villanova iD Gaming Academy
What Academy Students Are Saying
“I’ve been to the academy twice before, and it was great as always. Andrew K., student, Villanova iD Gaming Academy
“This camp has been the perfect combination of work and fun. I feel like I now have a really good understanding of Maya. Yet, I had a fun and awesome experience at the same time. I met a lot of great people and the staff was great. I hope to do it again next year! Lucas E., student, Villanova iD Gaming Academy
“I loved the counselors – they were great and taught me a ton. I can’t wait to come again. Jacob N., student, Villanova iD Gaming Academy
“This was an excellent program! I learned so much in such a short time and made some good friends in the process. There wasn’t a day that went by without a laugh and a memory. Epic two weeks. James P., student, Villanova iD Gaming Academy
“Great time…the instructors were amazing and the jokes we shared were great. The staff made the whole experience. Toby L., student, Villanova iD Gaming Academy
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does this teen camp cost?
The cost for the two-week residential teen camp is US $3,599 - $3,799. Check our site for special promotions. Continuing Education Units are available from Stanford Continuing Studies, for an additional fee. Age restrictions apply. Weekend Stays are optional, but recommended, and cost $349 per weekend. Most students choose to stay the weekend with us.
What are the dates of camp?
Our teen camps run throughout the summer. Check Step 2 to see date availability for specific courses. You can also see what iD Tech Camps courses and dates are available at this location.
What courses are offered at this location?
Go to Step 2 to see Course Availability, Tuition & Dates.
How do I find out if the course I want is open for enrollment?
View real-time availability all courses by going to Step 2.
How do I register?
Go to Step 2 and choose your course, then continue along the steps.
What if the curriculum is too easy or too hard once my program starts?
Don’t worry - students learn at their own pace, and the curriculum is customized to fit each student’s skill and experience level. Our instructors work closely with each student and adjust project specifications to be challenging yet fun.
Do I need to bring a computer to camp?
No, students do not need to bring personal computers to their session. iD provides a computer for each student to use over the course of their program, along with all materials necessary for the course.
Do you offer any non-overnight programs?
Yes, other iD programs include weeklong iD Tech Camps with both day camp and overnight camp options. iD Tech Camps courses are held at 60 universities nationwide, with topics ranging from iPhone® app development to video game design, website design and more. The courses are divided up by age range, so you can still choose to have a teen-only experience if you wish.
What if I get sick or have summer school?
Balance payments, less the non-refundable deposit, are refundable up until 3 weeks prior to the start of a confirmed camp week/session. No refunds will be issued for cancellations or withdrawals within 3 weeks of the start of a confirmed camp week/session. All cancellations must be submitted in writing to the internalDrive Inc. office or online in My Account no later than 3 weeks prior to the start of camp. For more details, please see our Terms & Conditions.
Who should I contact with questions or concerns?
Contact our Client Services department at 1-888-709-TECH (8324) or 1-408-871-2227. You can also email us at info@internalDrive.com. And, if you’d like a brochure sent to you, please click the brochure link.
