Whenever I hear “video game challenge,” I immediately think of The Wizard, with Fred Savage and company trekking across country to sunny California to compete in the ultimate Super Mario Bros. 3 video game championship…
I realize some of you are too young to remember such cinematic excellence, but it was worth a shot.
Anyway, the National STEM Video Game Challenge is a much different competition than the one portrayed in Wizard, as kids and teens from all over the nation battle it out making video games instead of playing them.
Inspired by President Obama’s Educate to Innovate Campaign, the challenge aims to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math education among youth.
Students in middle school, high school, and even college began submitting entries November 15, 2011 and can continue to do so until March 2012. Submissions themselves can be games created on any topic, made with any game creation tool, but the different entry streams include video games made with Scratch, Kodu, and more. Who is eligible? Any U.S. citizen enrolled in a school within the 50 states (or homeschooled) can participate.
And the competition isn’t just for fun – the winners receive awards and recognition. Prizes vary across age groups, but include AMD-powered laptops equipped with video game design and educational software, $2,500 for the winner’s school of choice, and more.
The inaugural challenge took place last year, and garnered over 500 game entries from middle and high schoolers, college students, and even educators.
Last week I made mention of an interesting video game study (benefit of playing video games) that outlines the creative assistance video games bestows on the kids and teens who play them. I hinted at the point that if playing games is beneficial, imagine the advantage gained for those who learn to make a video game.
Now, with the release of the highly-anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, consider how lucrative the game might end up being, and what that means for those looking to break into the industry with their own video game development aspirations.
Photo Courtesy of Joystiq.com
Activision’s Call of Duty franchise is already one of the highest grossing entertainment franchises of all time – note that is “entertainment,” not solely video game franchises. It’s been mentioned that MW3 could out-earn Titanic (a movie that produced more than a billion dollars). Not to mention that Black Ops, the Call of Duty release before MW3, earned $360 million during its first day of sales – four times more than what the latest Harry Potter brought in its first day.
Anyway, it’s clear that a game with a winning formula can garner huge earnings – there are 8 Call of Duty games in all. Pretty inspiring stuff for anyone out there who wants to take their video game experience to the next level; not only playing for hours on end, but creating video games of their own, and reaping the benefits in terms of creativity and potential careers down the road.
Even though all of us here at iD Tech Camps have witnessed the creative impact technology has on kids and teens, it’s always nice to see a recent study for validation.
Michigan State University found that nearly 500 12-year-olds who played video games exhibited increased creativity when it came to tasks such as drawing pictures and writing stories.
Photo Courtesy of www.News10.net
The crux of the study (which was part of MSU’s Children and Technology Project, funded by the National Science Foundation) involved assessing how often students used technology in its different forms, and then measured their creativity with the Torrance Test of Creativity.
Linda Jackson, head researcher and professor of psychology, notes that with such knowledge, game developers should push to discover those specific aspects of video games that are most responsible for resulting creativity. “Once they do that, video games can be designed to optimize the development of creativity while retaining their entertainment values such that a new generation of video games will blur the distinction between education and entertainment,” Jackson states in an MSU press release.
While the study proves that playing games boosts creative juices, just think of the impact received when you create your own video game. From game design, to game development, modding, and modeling, learning about the different aspects of video games and then actually putting that knowledge into action is a valuable practice.
Throughout the summer, students on break from school will spend many hours in front of a computer. But one group isn’t playing video games or surfing apps; they are learning to create them.
For beginners and tech-geniuses alike, iD Tech Camps offer students ages 7-17 the opportunity to spend a week learning how to create games, programs, apps, websites and more. More than 200 will participate in the camp held at Rollins College this summer, and even more will attend at one of the other 60 universities around the nation…
Tech camp brings real-life teamwork to video games
By Jamie Sarrio
Jordan Cammon always brings the conversation back to video games.
Like other passionate gamers, the 10-year-old wants to talk about the characters, the levels, the sequences and the challenges that make his favorite games so exciting. And this summer he’s in good company – working with other students to create his own computer games during iD Tech Camp at Vanderbilt University.
“I love to talk about video games,” he said, fidgeting in his chair. “Since I love video games so much, I wanted to make games.”
The weeklong camp is held every year at universities all over the country for students age 7 to 17 who want to learn how to create 2D and 3D video games. Sessions in Nashville will run through July 17, and the camp starts at $700 and goes up to $1,200 a week, if campers elect to stay overnight.
Counselors, who are given gamer nicknames like “Sonic,” work with students to teach them how to use new programs and make their own video games. There’s also camaraderie among students, many of whom have a rare passion for video games.
“A lot of these kids have no identity at their regular schools,” said Tracey Price, camp director. “Tech camp is a great place for them to come and do what they love instead of doing it at home alone.”
Younger students start simple by picking characters, scenic backgrounds and objectives – older students build 3-D role-playing games or enhance existing games to make them their own. There’s one instructor for every eight campers, so the instruction is very personalized, Price said.
No applications are required, and students are separated based on ability and age. That’s partly to prevent younger students from being exposed to video games that are too violent or mature, she said.
Kids get taste of college
Campers also get exposed to life on a college campus and future careers in computer programming, though many are too young to know what they want to do just yet. They also take frequent breaks from the screen to play outside and share jokes.
Ethan Sloan, an 11-year-old from Franklin, says the food – dining hall style – is also a perk. “I think I am learning life-long skills I can use later,” he said. “It’s really helpful.”
Mostly boys attend the camp, but a few girls, like Kyra Tyler, sign up, as well. Tyler, a 12-year-old David Lipscomb Middle School student, wanted to come to the camp because she loves to play alternative reality games, like The Sims. At this camp, she’s working on building her own. “Most of my friends go to cheer camp or the mall, and I’ll do that stuff,” she said. “But I’d rather do this.”
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.”
Share the Experience
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.
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