Our Youth Esports and Game Design Summer Camp!
Since we opened our doors in 2020 a lot of things have changed about Great Lakes Gaming, but our commitment to building up the Rochester community has not changed. Our most recent endeavor has been servicing local families with our week-long Summer camps which were featured on the Rochester First news station!
Our goal with these camps is simple: provide a safe space for kids to learn about gaming, esports, and technology while connecting with like-minded peers. It won’t surprise you to learn that our interest in gaming and tech started when we were younger, and opportunities like this camp were hard to come by back then (and still are!) Camps and after school programs are often focused on more traditional activities like sports, wilderness adventuring, and theater, which are great, but leave something to be desired for the kids interested in gaming and information technology, the “nerds” and “geeks”, if you will. Seeing a lack of representation for these kids, we designed a camp just for them.
This year’s GLG Summer Camp is about four main topics:
Video Games: Not just playing them (though there’s plenty of that), but learning about how games are made, otherwise referred to as Game Design and Development (GDD). We provide lessons on everything from creating the art, to writing the code, to designing puzzles and mechanics that engage the player. Everyone can tell when a game isn’t fun, but not everyone can say why it isn’t fun. That’s a skill you only learn by studying these aspects of games, with lessons made by students who studied GDD at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Throughout the week, each camper works on and completes their own game that they can play and continue working on at home. Our goal is to inspire campers to see gaming as not just a hobby, but an interactive art form, a massive technical endeavor, and a potential career path.
Esports: The E in esports stands for electronic, and the term encompasses a huge number of things. The most obvious examples are video games like Fortnite and Madden, but there are huge, distinct fandoms within esports you likely had no idea existed, such as racing games like F1, Tetris, and even Microsoft Excel (yes, really.) Just like traditional sports, there’s a lot more to esports than just playing games: there’s coaching, management, nutrition/ physical health, and that’s not even getting into the business side of things. At our camp, kids form teams and create an esports organization from the ground up. They decide on a team name, logo, slogan, their values, what games they support, and much, much more. This helps kids see games as more than just something to do when they want to turn off their brain, but rather an engaging activity that can be as demanding and serious as they want it to be, while also teaching them about what goes into managing a business behind the scenes.
Video Editing: Being a social media content creator is one of the most dreamed of jobs for kids today, and it’s easy to see why. It’s fun and less demanding than most careers, but takes a number of skills just like any other job. Creating content requires an understanding of recording software like OBS and editing programs like CapCut. It’s also crucial— especially for children— to avoid releasing compromising content like personal information, location, and anything else that could endanger the creator. That’s why we emphasize internet safety to our campers and ensure that, if they’re going to upload content like their favorite creators, they do so in the most secure way possible.
Team Work: Last, but certainly not least, is team work— one of the most important skills in life is being a good teammate. Whether you’re in school, participating in a community, or on the job, you’re going to find yourself working with others, and that’s not always easy. You need to be able to effectively communicate your ideas, listen to your teammates, resolve conflicts, and know when to lead and when to trust others to lead. Campers are always working in groups, learning these skills with help from GLG staff, and making new friends along the way.
GLG’s camps were featured in the following news channels:
Yahoo News reported on our first week of camp! Click for Yahoo’s Article
See the Channel 8 video and article here: Click to see us on WROC 8
Westwide News spread the word all the way to Greece (NY): Click Here!
News 10 NBC joined in to support the camps: See what they had to say
Our ‘25 summer camps end soon and have limited availability left, but we run camps in the Spring and Winter, and we’re starting a new after school program this Fall! If you think your kids would be interested in an opportunity like this, click here to check for for details on camp curriculum and sign up dates, follow us on Instagram for updates on upcoming programs, and feel free to call us with any questions about Great Lakes Gaming at (585) 604-9626.
