 |
| Archive photograph by Erin Day | James Stavrinides, 14, watches a video game presentation and his Computer screen during a two-week video game programming workshop at Cogswell Polytechnical College in Sunnyvale this summer. |
| Students learn the basics of video game programming By Falguni Bhuta |
| His dyed blue-green hair towers over the monitor, his eyes transfixed on the computer screen. His fingers flow over the keyboard as he types in computer commands. Skye Estes is about to finish making Brix, a video game fimilar to Pong. Since childhood, Estes, 21, has been a video game buff and two of his favorite games have been Pacman and Final Fantasy.
Twenty-three students shelled out $995 to lean the basics of video game programming at the workshop. Estes, who will be attending Cogswell in the fall, wants to pursue video game programming as a career. "This two-week long workshop is for high school and college students who want to get a little taste of video game programming," says Raymond Yan, Vice President of Operations for DigiPen. "It helps students look beyond the 'cool factor' of making games," he says. "Ultimately, game development is very difficult. Programming is not the complete focus of the workshop," Yan says. "We are teaching the kids what's really involved with making a game: the design, the artwork, the sound and the programming." DigiPen, which stands for digital pen, is the first school in the world dedicated to computer science instruction as it applies to real-time interactive simulation programming and has been named the top school that offers game degree programs in the world. DigiPen was founded 15 years ago in Vancouver, British Columbia, and its main focus was animation production. Currently, DigiPen offers two four-year degree programs in real-time interactive simulation and 3-D animation and graphics. This is the first time DigiPen is offering a video game programming workshop for high school students in the Bay Area. Yan says DigiPen is partnering with Cogswell because of its good reputation as a technical school. Another reason for the partnering is Cogswell’s location in Silicon Valley where, he says, there is a market to run the workshop. Students don't need to know programming to attend the workshop. Yan says DigiPen instructors use the proprietary software Project Fun, which eliminates the need to know 'C' programming. The host institute, Cogswell, offers four-year bachelor's degrees in engineering, computer and video imaging, digital audio technology and digital motion picture, says President Allyson Handley. The nonprofit fully accredited institution was founded in 1888 by Henry Cogswell, a dentist and one of the first millionaires of the California Gold Rush, Handley says. Initially the school was based in San Francisco, after which it moved to several campuses before finally settling in Sunnyvale in 1994. Handley says Cogswell graduates have worked on movies like Shrek and Toy Story. "Companies love our students because they are very skilled," she says. Cogswell gives scholoarships to encourage local talent. Matt Clemons director of enrollment services at Cogswell, says the school awards $1,000 scholarships every year to one male and one female student from one of Sunnyvale's high schools-Fremont High, Homestead High or Sunnyvale High. Some students drive a ways to the workshop. Debra Marks, whose 16-year-old son is enrolled in the DigiPen summer camp, says this workshop gives her son a couple of years to try things out before he gets serious about college. Marks and her son travel from Gilroy for the summer camp. |
| Copyright © SVCN, LLC. |