Kotaku
iD Tech Camps, a sort of summer camp for children interesting in game development and computers, announced today that they will be offering classes on using the Unreal Engine 3 tools to make games to six or seven students this year. The instruction sounds like it will be heavy on the modding, but there will also be instruction on creating original games and environments.
"We've partnered with iD Tech Camps because of their reputation for quality game development instruction for teens," said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. "Unreal Tournament 3 delivers unparalleled game quality that gamers have come to know and expect from Epic Games. We are reaching an audience of gaming enthusiasts who play the game as well as learn to design and mod with our deep set of tools."
This seems like a pretty smart move on Epic's part. It's sort of like Apple giving computers to schools to use in their labs. It hooks kids when their young.
Video Game Camp Uses Award-Winning Unreal Tournament 3 to Teach Valuable Game Development Skills
CAMPBELL, CA - January 3, 2008 - Today's teens are the first generation born into a world completely oriented around technology. Their births were announced on a cell phone and their images growing up were sent to family on the Internet. They have social networking pages and build relationships by calling and texting friends.
So what's the best way to teach technology, and more specifically, the emerging field of video game development, to teens? Campbell, CA based iD Tech Camps, America's largest national youth summer computer camp, thinks it has the answer. Instruction is broken into manageable parts and classes promote hands-on learning in small groups of just 6 or 7 students—a big departure from a typical school classroom of 30. Topics at the camp focus on the interests of teens. And who wouldn't want to make their own video game? The small peer group collaboration and emphasis on experimentation encourage exploration and creativity in the rapidly expanding field of video game development.
"We provide an environment where instruction is personalized and fluid," said Pete Ingram-Cauchi, president and CEO of iD Tech Camps. "Teens choose our computer camp because we have the cutting edge software and tools that are most relevant in the industry. Partnering with industry leaders like Epic Games is vital. They believe in our teaching philosophy. They understand that a key component to offering the best tech courses involves instruction of the industry's leading game engine, Unreal Engine 3, as provided with the Unreal Tournament 3 game."
Midway, a leading interactive entertainment publisher and developer, and world-renowned developer Epic Games, Inc., recently announced that the highly anticipated and award-winning Unreal Tournament 3 game has shipped for PC. Building off of the massive success of Gears of War, the 2006 Game of the Year, Epic Games has brought the world's premiere and multi-million unit selling first-person shooter back to the PC. Students at iD Tech Camps will get instruction on the Unreal Engine 3 tools that ship as part of the Unreal Tournament 3 PC version. This way they are getting training in a world-class professional game engine that has also been used in award-winning, million-selling, games including Gears of War, Mass Effect and BioShock.
"We've partnered with iD Tech Camps because of their reputation for quality game development instruction for teens," said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. "Unreal Tournament 3 delivers unparalleled game quality that gamers have come to know and expect from Epic Games. We are reaching an audience of gaming enthusiasts who play the game as well as learn to design and mod with our deep set of tools."
iD Tech Camps and the iD Gaming Academy use the recently released Unreal Tournament 3 in their curriculum and during NVIDIA-hosted Gaming Tournaments. Students will be able to modify Unreal Tournament 3 by adding new levels, redesigning skins or replacing characters to customize game play through interactive modding tools. They can also create 3D video games and design 3D environments and levels complete with advanced special effects.
The "couch potato" characterization of video game players is being tossed out the window. Players no longer passively play; they build their own environments, characters and strategies. Educators and manufacturers are responding by providing the training, technology and tools that allow users to be more than just players.
Comments
mmm fragged kids for lunch.
That idea actually seems pretty cool. Too bad I'm not math or programming oriented.
Though I have to say that Apple's "Macs for kids to hook 'em young" idea sucked.
When I was in Kindergarten, they had one of those free Macs, and it sucked so badly, and ran so slowly that I actually preferred Windows 95 and its constant crashing to the Mac. Not saying that Macs suck, just the free ones.
"It hooks kids when their young." <- What's wrong with that statement? Editor FTW.
Aww, I took a video game course at one of these camps many years ago... but we just used some crappy scripting engine.
When I used macs at school as a kid it only made me think " Why does PC have all the cool games?" quite the opposite of hooking me.
did you mean "It hooks kids when they're young."?
why don't we hook the kids on phonics instead ;)
iD Tech Camps?...
I'm also unsure what they meant by throwing out "couch potato" characterization. Unless game modding requires heavy lifting.
No relation to id Software, right?
It'd be silly to have them promoting the competition's engine.
Typo: Interesting should be interested.
Article: I think it's a good idea, both dev and business-wise. That way if the kids do turn out to be developers and/or designers, then they not only have training, but have training on Epic's engine.
let me be the first to say that i attended this iD Tech Camp last summer at CMU in Pittsburgh, where i live.
It was a lot of fun and knowing that they'll be using UE3 i just might sign up for another year.
is the Unreal Engine 3 really that hard to develop for they want kids to do it? w/e. be kinda nice to do if you're into video game development. we are the future...
ID Tech camps sucks. I've attended their camps for 5 years starting when I was in 7th grade. It is severely overpriced and crazy sappy. You don't even want to know about their bloody ACKNOWLEDGEMENT SYSTEM...
I don't recommend it at all, unless the attendee in question is a immature rich kid.
My son forgets to brush his teeth, how do I expect him to remember how to use UE3? XD LOL.
ID tech enforcing epic tech?
hmmmm..
As a former councilor at iD Tech Camp I will agree that some things about the camp is very poorly done. There are many good parts too. I was a councilor at the camp at UC Santa Cruz in 2004. It was its first year so it wasn't quite as crazy as some of the others. I think that because of the limited population of Santa Cruz, it was probably a lot better. The people I worked with were nice and knew what they were talking about. The main problems I had were mainly related to the game development class. We used this crappy and very buggy program that basically made objects and allowed you to set rules for them. This made it simple to make games you might see in NES or SNES in general, and then generated EXEs from them. But as I said, it was buggy, so sometimes a student would ask why something wouldn't work, and all I could say was that the program had a bug. There were many other better ways to do this. Using Unreal Engine could be a good start.
For those kids who have gone and that it was sappy and crazy, you might have gone to the wrong camp. Its all based on the people there and you need good councilors. Try it again, only go somewhere else, maybe somewhere small where all the councilors know everyone's name (like it was in Santa Cruz). Instead of being overwhelmed by the system and the sappiness, you might learn something and have a fun time.
So that's why my ghetto catholic middle school had macs. Now everything makes sense.
And now that I submitted the above comment, I realize an important point I left out. The game making program was interesting and let kids make games without doing much thinking, but it also doesn't teach them to do anything that they can use five years from then. The programming class did, so did the video creation class. The point of the class for younger kids was not to teach a skill, but to teach about computers in general. So most of the classes taught something that will continue to be useful, but not the game class. If only they used Flash, or something similar, maybe even as an addition, and taught it to more experienced kids, that would be really useful and fun.
I wonder if Epic will provide any special tutorials and curriculum, or if this really just amounts to a donation of a few hundred copies of UT3. Regardless, these camps sound like an interesting idea, and getting modern technology into the kids' hands is a great thing.
It probably will not be so bad.
EA bought my high school a tech wing and a bunch of computers and cameras and such.
They have huge plaques and stuff
[it is called the EA Wing also]
but it does not change the lesson and it does not make me want Wii Playground more.
Of course, it could all turn into Ender's Game...
or they could make Ender's Game using the Unreal III engine.
... either one is pretty cool.
I did this camp last year at Stanford. It was awesome! It's amazing how much you learn in a short amount of time. Last year we used Beyond Virtual, so I can't wait to try out Unreal. If any of you guys are serious about getting into game design, this is a great place to start. I'll be back for the follow up course this summer.
Oh and the camp I think Crecente is referring to is iD Gaming Academy, it's not just a regular iD Tech Camp. For 3 weeks you study game design very intensively.
Doesn't iD have their own engine?
Wake Tech Community College in Raleigh, NC does this for kids in the summer as well.
@cybereality: From a look at their website I don't think iD Tech has any relation to id Software.
what?! when i went to iD tech camp they taught me how to make a website, make a calculator using JAVA, and edit videos... 8 years later and these kids get to play with the unreal engine and build games? makes me want to be a kid again.
@Doomstink:
You got your free copy as well from Wake Tech...
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