The Potpourri Tomball

As appeared in the The Potpourri Tomball June 2009
While peers play games, 6th grader creates them in summer camp
By Anna Schuman

Northpointe Intermediate student Gabe Shah is creating a 15-level multi-player Mario computer game in his iD Tech camp.

When Gabe Shah returns to school in August, his friends might tell stories of places they visited in the summer, of sites they’ve seen, of games they’ve played, but few can say they have done what the 11-year-old has.

The soon-to-be sixth grader at Northpointe Intermediate said he wishes he could spend all day every day at iD Tech Camp, held at the University of Houston. In just a few days, he has learned to create, and has completed, his very own 15-level, multiplayer “Mario” computer game.

An avid game player, Shah has had his sights set on becoming a game maker and working for Jagex Games, an independent game publisher and developer based in England. He, like many of his peers, was already familiar with playing games, but now he knows how to make them as well.

Creating games, he said, takes a lot of creativity. He was given few guidelines about the type of game to create, so most of it is straight from his imagination. Not only do he and his fellow campers leave at the end of the week knowing they were able to create something, they get to take their game home with them.

“It’d really be cool if my friends could play my game, and think it’s really cool, then they can ask where I got it and I can say I made it,” he said. “I’m the only one who can say they’ve made their own game.”

Students like Shah, ranging in age from 7 to 18, can participate in iD Tech’s gaming, film and programming camps nationwide. Some students travel across the country to go to the camps, others from across the world.

Anela Wenger, the camp director at U of H, said one of Shah’s fellow campers flew in from Japan for two weeks to participate in the camp in Houston. Wenger said she believes the popularity, though Houston is one of the smaller camps, is due to the program’s reputation.

“Some people might be skeptical to send their kids to a camp where they play video games all day,” she said. “Yeah, they do play games, but here they create the games.”

An educator by profession, Wenger said she is amazed by the focus the campers have when they start their projects. When they are doing other camp activities, indoors and outdoors, and even during lunch, campers ask if they can go back to work on their projects.

There’s more to what the campers learn than just how to program computers, design and create games, she said. They also learn great problem-solving skills through the medium of game creation.

Shah plans to return to the camp each year, taking different classes at different levels, learning everything he can, and hopes to one day be among the college and graduate students who teach the camp classes.

He said people might think of people who love computers as nerdy, but he wants people to remember how Bill Gates got his start, and said he and future campers might be among the next Albert Einsteins and Bill Gates’ of the world. Until then, he plans to spread the word about his favorite camp and the importance of computers to everyone.

“They always say reading, writing and math are what you need to know, but I think everyone should know computers these days,” he said. “Kids don’t have to love computers to come to this camp, but I bet they will when they leave.”
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iD Tech Camps run at the University of Houston through July 24. For more information or to reserve your spot, go to www.internalDrive.com.