Summer Camp Specifically For Game Lovers
This summer at Bitmask Games, we hope to offer a bit of something for everyone. From those with a bit of curiosity who want to check it out to those who have decided they are truly passionate about making games; for the artists and writers and musicians who want to adapt their skills to game design to the young programmers who love logic and code. These are the current summer camp offerings available at the studio. Note, each of these is a half day class, but they all have a logical full-day complement that makes for a good combo.
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Here are some examples of some great optional combinations:
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AM: Video Game Development / PM: Retro Game Experience
This combo is great for those younger games, those just starting out, or who are a little bit more casual about jumping in to making their own video games.
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AM: Video Game Development / PM: Retro Video Game Programming
This combo is definitely for those who are serious about making specifically retro games, and for those who want to be fully armed with the tools to see their vision available on a real cartridge.
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AM: Basic Modern Game Development / PM: Retro Video Game Programming
This combo is not for the faint of heart! For those looking for the intellectual challenge that are very serious about going into the field, this will be a great primer for popular modern game tools and computer science.
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AM: Basic Modern Game Development / PM: Retro Game Experience
This combo is great for pushing and exploring new boundaries in the morning while having a nice relaxing brain break in the afternoon.
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Individual Class Listings
SUGGESTED
Combine for
Full-Day Camp of discounted
Retro Gaming!
A logical combination: Looking for an all day solution for your aspiring gamer? Here, students mornings will be spent learning the basics of game development, with afternoons spent examining the classics for inspiration!
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*Note: students are also welcome to mix any morning with any afternoon program for which they are qualified.
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**Lunch hour will be from 12-1. Students are welcome to stay and eat observing food allergies, but we also have many eateries in the plaza, and we are connected to the bike path, providing a great opportunity for students to get an hour of exercise. For enrolled students, we will go over expectations and protocols for this with parents and make accommodations where possible.
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VIDEO GAME DEVELOPMENT
Let's build video games, zero experience is required. This weekly series of classes will focus deeply on a different phase of game development each week, from drawing pixel art to composing game music to creating clever level design to writing inspiring narrative and more. Newcomers will learn the basics in bringing their projects to life, while seasoned developers can hone their skills with deep dives in these various disciplines. With each week having a different focus, students can take single week classes, or they can have holistic growth throughout the entire series!
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Oh yeah, and in this camp, students can actually port their games to real physical cartridges that will play on old school systems (and modern emulators, of course!).
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AGES: 8-18
REQUIRED SKILLS: Basic computer literacy
DATES: July 7th - Aug 15th, 9am - 12 noon
JULY 7-11: PIXEL ART
JULY 14-18: ANIMATION
JULY 21-25: LEVEL DESIGN
JULY 28- Aug 1: NARRATIVE DESIGN
AUG 4-8: SIMPLE AI
AUG 11-15: MUSIC COMPOSITION
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COST: $250/week or full camp discount
THE RETRO GAMER EXPERIENCE
This summer camp will examine the history of video games through play, exploration, and analysis. In it, students will get an opportunity to play through 40 years worth of gaming history while learning about important milestones and analyzing technology. With a much more leisurely approach and a focus on play, this is designed to be a fun, communal way for students to explore and appreciate multiple generations of the medium. Expect friendly competition such as Super Mario speed runs, "King of Kong" style high score battles, Wii bowling tournaments, daily challenges on the classics, longer explorations into deeper titles, and more! And we even have dozens of issues of the Nintendo Power Magazines and Strategy Guides to help students get through the NES-hard parts! Play systems such as:
Atari
NES
SNES
N64
GameCube
Sega Genesis
Wii
WiiU
Playstation
GameBoy
and more!
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AGES: 8-18
REQUIRED SKILLS: None
DATES: July 7th - Aug 15th, 1pm - 4pm
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COST: $250/week or full camp discount
SUGGESTED
Combine for
Full-Day Camp of discounted
serious game development!
A logical combination: Looking for an all day solution for your aspiring game developer? Here, students mornings will be spent learning the basics of modern development in tools like Unity and Unreal, with afternoons spent diving deep into computer science and assembly code!
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*Note: students are also welcome to mix any morning with any afternoon program for which they are qualified.
​
**Lunch hour will be from 12-1. Students are welcome to stay and eat observing food allergies, but we also have many eateries in the plaza, and we are connected to the bike path, providing a great opportunity for students to get an hour of exercise. For enrolled students, we will go over expectations and protocols for this with parents and make accommodations where possible.
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RETRO VIDEO GAME PROGRAMMING
So you want to be a programmer. Do you love intellectual puzzles and have a need to understand how things work? Do you love video games and technology? In this 6 week session, we will be learning how to program our own retro game engine down to the byte level! Students looking to seriously level up your skills in game development - this is for you! Because the knowledge is cumulative, this is intended as a full summer session, however please inquire about any special circumstances.
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Topics to be covered:​
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Understanding 6502 Assembly
Building a basic framework
Writing custom macros and subroutines
Building a custom Object system
Building a custom Physics system
Building a custom Collision system
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Oh yeah, and in this camp, students can actually port their games to real physical cartridges that will play on old school systems (and modern emulators, of course!).
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AGES: 12-18
REQUIRED SKILLS: Basic computer literacy, some programming knowledge a plus.
DATES: July 7th - Aug 15th, 1pm - 4pm
COST: $250/week or full camp discount
BASIC MODERN GAME DEVELOPMENT
Moving beyond retro, for students who want to begin dipping their toes into modern game development, this class will be broken down into three two-week pieces, where students will learn the basics of Unity, Unreal, and Unreal for VR.
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AGES: 12-18
REQUIRED SKILLS: Basic computer literacy, some programming knowledge a plus.
DATES: July 7th - Aug 15th, 9am - 12noon
July 7th - 18th: Unity Basics
July 21st - Aug 1st: Unreal Basics
Aug 4th - Aug 15th: Unreal VR Basics
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COST: $250/week or full class discount