Online Game Development Camp

2024 Dates

July 15-19

Online Game Development Camp

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10am-4pm EST, Daily

Tuition Cost: $500

Scholarships available!

As always, the Game Development Camp at the Indiana University Media School is a rewarding experience for students interested in all sorts of games and the technology that powers them.

Students need no previous experience, and they don’t have to be tech-savvy or avid game players. We welcome those who are curious and want to spend a week with us this summer, learning something new, right along with those who aspire to be the next cutting-edge game creator.

Structure

As in previous years, the online camp will be scheduled over the course of a five-day week. It will be structured into morning and afternoon sessions, with a lunch break in between. The afternoon session on the last day would be a finale event for the students to collectively show off their work to the other campers and their families. The sessions will be divided into several different kinds of activities including: icebreakers, micro-talks with accompanying exercises, tech tutorials, game playing, critique, and guest speaker talks, and most importantly, creating game projects.

Icebreakers

The opening of each day, students will be playing various games with the instructors via Zoom, Tabletopia, and other game playing resources. This has always been a great way to help students get to know each other, the camp staff, and get warmed up to be thinking about game development within a familiar environment.

Micro-talks

Daily micro-talks will be held that cover a variety of game development topics. These talks will be led by IU Game Design faculty. Each talk will be brief, introducing students to the concepts needed to make their own game projects. The talks will be followed by interactive exercises that help students apply the concepts discussed by the faculty.

Tech Tutorials

Students will go through interactive tutorials on how to use Construct 3 (a game engine used for development), and start to explore the technical side of game development. It is a very light weight engine, meaning it can run on older or less sophisticated machines, and it is very user friendly and robust. Students can work the engine as far as they want to go, or stay in line with the provided tutorials. 

To provide these tutorials students will be in a Zoom share space, as an instructor shares their screen and walks them through the content. These tutorials are naturally delivered in short bursts with time to apply their new technical knowledge in between. Allowing students to catch up if needed, or move quicker if they would like. 

Other tutorials students will be walked through for their games are pixel art assets creation, SFX design, and animation. 

Game Playing

There is always lots of gaming going on at the game camp. In order to add a bit of variety to the day, we will have scheduled breaks for students to break out and play games with each other. One of the biggest pieces of positive feedback we get from the camp is students making friends and meeting new people. We want to make sure they have the opportunity to meet other gamers.. 

Critique

In order to keep students on track, focused, and get them familiar with talking about the game development process there will be frequent small group critique sessions with counselors. These can be done in breakout rooms within the Zoom space

Guest Talks

The game camp has always invited esteemed developers in the industry to speak to the students and with the transition virtually this becomes easier than ever. These guest talks give students a unique perspective into the game industry and allow them to connect with some of their favorite creators. 

Lunch

Even virtually we would like the students to eat lunch together on Zoom. Having a meal together is an easy way for them to get to know each other, share ideas, and make new friends which is always one of the highlights of the camp experience. 

Finale

One of the most exciting parts of the camp has always been our end-of-week finale event. We plan on continuing this fun tradition virtually. Students will upload their projects to a shared folder and then have them play tested by other students, counselors, and family members in Zoom via screen share.