Specialized camp teaches game design tools

The two-week camp teaches children age 10 to 17 the basics of video game design.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Huddled around a specially built computer last month, three video-game designers found themselves at odds over where Duckman should head next.

A battle for creative control ensued.

“The third boss can be a demon dog!” argued 13-year-old Jack Wells, of Hilliard.

“No way,” said 12-year-old Alan Grinberg, of New Albany. “This game is way too hard for three bosses.”

“Well, I beat it,” boasted a grinning Jack. “Then again, I’m the ultimate gamer.”

A work in progress, the game pitted an anthropomorphic, laser-gun-toting mallard against a lightning-tossing demon. Other proposed enemies included a potato creature that shoots radioactive french fries from its arms.

The trio, including 13-year-old Brian Poland, of Westerville, was honing Duckman on day four of Game Camp USA, a traveling program for kids age 10 to 17 that teaches game-design basics.

The two-week summer camp — in Columbus for the first time since it hit the road in 2006 — will stop in six cities in the Midwest and East by August’s end.

The first-week session here sold out its 16 spots at the Homewood Suites in Columbus — a first for a newly added city.

“We’re trying to figure out why, so we can do it everywhere,” said program director Steve Deyesso, a former high-school math teacher who helped form camp operator Convergenesis Inc. in Nashua, N.H.

Game design was once the purview of self-taught technophiles but has gone comparatively mainstream in recent years amid a boom for the gaming industry, which last year brought in a record $18 billion in the United States.

Gamasutra.com, an industry-tracking Web site, lists more than 300 college-level programs worldwide, including those at Ohio University in Athens and Shawnee State University in Portsmouth.

Deyesso considers Game Camp USA part of that trend, albeit one aimed at the pre-college crowd.

The program, starting at $595 a week, focuses on programming mechanics (writing computer code) and designing graphics. Students begin the day at 9 a.m. and finish at 5 p.m. In between are breaks to eat, blow off steam in the hotel pool and “research” (read: play) popular games such as Halo and Warcraft III.

“They game just as hard as they work,” Deyesso said.

“Harder,” added Anthony Lisboa, one of three instructors who travel with Deyesso and a cargo van hauling 18 desktop computers.

Some of the Columbus campers — including Nathan Poland, 11, Brian’s brother — signed up for the fun of it.

“I’ve only ever played video games, so I thought it would be interesting to make one,” said Nathan, who crafted a game featuring ninjas dodging blocks. “It’s fun, but it’s also a lot of work.”

Other participants, including recent Gahanna Lincoln High School graduate Quincy Kurtz, hope to make a career of it.

The idea behind his Next-Generation Pong was to allow players to turn their paddles sideways and put spin on the ball. Occasionally, the ball passed through the paddles like a ghost through a wall.

“It’s messed up,” said Kurtz, squinting at the numbers, letters and symbols that comprise the game’s code. “I have to fix that.”

A few minutes later, he did — and added a score-keeping system to boot.

By late afternoon, none of the students was ready to work for Nintendo, yet all managed to turn building blocks into playable titles.

“We don’t require them to know anything coming in,” said company president Phil Luchon, who travels with the group.

“Our goal is to teach them how to make their own games and really give them an insight as to what it would take to go on and do this for a career.”

As the end of the day approached, the students turned to their next assignment: creating a game that built on the lessons of the last.

How to top Duckman, though?

Jack, along with new partner Jacob Yanscik, settled on the concept of a mouse that collects blocks of cheese while avoiding hungry cats.

“When you collect all the cheese, then you head for the exit — and that’s how you win,” explained Jacob, 14, of Marysville.

“It’s going to be genius.”