Tech camp gets kids in the game

With school out for summer, some kids may be tempted to stay inside and play video games but others will be designing them instead.

Some participants in iD Tech Camp will spend a week learning a variety of skills to help them create their own games.

ID Tech Camps have been setting up weeklong camps on high school and college campuses for 15 years. Participants range from 7 to 17 and can choose from several tech skills including robotics, app development, web designing and filmmaking.

At the camp held on the UC Irvine campus this month, game design students learn the basics of creating games within the first three days, then work on making a complete, functioning game in the last two days.

While making their programs and designs, the Irvine campers were able to incorporate their own personal interests into their work.

Josh Martinez, 11, a student from La Paz Intermediate School in Laguna Hills, said he has always been enthusiastic about aliens. His game, which he titled “Plasma Defender,” has the player shoot green aliens as they try to move into a passageway. If one alien gets through, the player instantly loses.

Josh created his game as part of the camp’s Mobile Game Design for iPhone and Android course. By the end of the lessons, students can export the games they designed on the camp’s laptops onto their personal mobile devices.

The camp’s Minecraft 3D Game Design course led its students in a more theoretical direction.

“We learn design but we’re also focused on how to tell a story with the game,” course instructor James Riedel said. “We think about what’s an effective way to lead a character and how to create a world.”

Joanne Lee, 10, a student from Canyon View Elementary School in Irvine, made the setting for her 3D game an underwater one.

“The object of the game is to get to the sword so you can defeat the sea monster with it,” Joanne said. “I’ve always been interested in adventure maps, which are games that have a storyline.”

The player moves over blocks and busts through walls during the journey to the sword.

This week’s camp concludes with a final showcase Friday, where parents are invited to the campus to play the games their students have crafted. Afterward, the students will store their games in a flash drive so they can be saved and played later.

Instructors and directors of the camp say they have one main goal — for the students to find technology fun.

“There’s this issue in education where kids aren’t learning about these concepts in a way that’s fun,” Irvine’s camp assistant director Arian Johnson said. “You can sit in your room and learn this. But here, the kids are meeting others who have the same interests and they get the chance to be social.”

This summer, the camp will host nine one-week sessions at the Irvine campus.