High Schoolers from all over the Country Expanded their Coding and Design Expertise at MSU’s Media Summer Camps
Even at ninety degrees, the mid-July heat didn’t stop dozens of high school students from flocking to MSU to improve their game design expertise at Media Summer Camps.
ComArtSci’s top faculty instructed five camps focused on different aspects of game development. From July 8-19, students worked with each other to learn the ins and outs of creating a functional game. This was followed by a showcase where students got to display what they had created to their peers and families.
Students had the option of either staying one night or for the entire duration of the camp. The Immersive Game Design Camp ran for two weeks. The first week was spent on honing the students’ skills, and in the second week, students applied what they learned to create their own games. The camp explained specific game design and development elements, including writing narratives, sound design, concept art and level design.
Some students travelled to East Lansing from smaller Midwest towns such as South Bend, Indiana, in order to get a chance to play with the Game Design and Development Program’s advanced technology.
“I’d say coming to the Media Camps has opened new doors for me,” said Brenden Melody from Penn High School. He marveled at the wide range of technology that was made available to him during camp. “It’s opened my eyes as to what I can do, and what I could do in the future. I want to pursue that as much as possible. In my hometown, I’m not used to all of this. The most experience I had originally was with Python and Apple Swift. And now, I’m working with Unity and C#.”
Melody, along with the rest of the students in the Immersive Game Design Camp, began their learning by recreating Asteroids, a popular meteor blasting simulator born in the ‘70s. Melody and his fellow classmates all agreed that the project was a challenge, but a welcome one.
The camp has even inspired some youth to consider enrolling in Michigan State after attending these Media Summer Camps.
“For me, it’s awesome, because I’ve done plenty of camps,” said Noah Varton from Plymouth Canton Educational Park. “I’ve been waiting to do a camp like this, because most of the time, it’s all blocks, which is really easy code you can get anywhere. It’s hard to find places like this where you can actually learn to type out numbers and letters to actually code.”
By John Castro