Kids learn to make their own video games at coding camp

Out the window, the sun shines in a brilliant blue sky. But inside the large meeting room at Surrey City Hall, about a dozen children age 7 to 14 have their faces figuratively glued to laptop computers. 

The youngsters are learning how to code and craft their own video games.

"My mom told me to try it, so I was like, 'Yeah,' because I wanted to make games in the future," said Adam, 9, who wants to get rich when he grows up by owning a big video game company.

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The game Adam has coded involves a car that drives along a two-dimensional track, jumping over obstacles. Test driving it, he struggles to get the car over a wall, so he deletes the obstacle and tries again.

Mickey Blumental operates the Coding Kids camp, which runs for 3.5 hours each morning for 10 days.

"I love making games and I love working with kids. I have my own kid who's an eight year old. This is kind of like a magical combination, making games and working with kids," he said, noting that his boy actually hasn't taken to coding the way his students have.

"The coding side, it's really cool, because it's empowering for kids to make the computer do stuff, 'Oh I know how to program.' It's something that's really cool for self-esteem, especially with young children," Blumental said.

"They also get to express themselves creatively with the art and the game design."

Yasmeen, 11, and her eight-year-old twin sisters, Sara and Tara, were enjoying the computer work on Wednesday morning.

"I'm working on a game that's kind of like Super Mario. Two players play it. You can play it one player, but you can play it two players too," said Yasmeen.

"You just, like, jump around, there are some enemies that kill you … There are coins, so you can collect them and there will be, like, a little shop where you can buy weapons."

Yasmeen said in her free time she generally likes playing computer games, so learning how the games are made is pretty interesting.

"It's not that hard, because they taught us all the stuff," she said.

Her sister Sara agrees, though she said it can be a bit of a challenge.

"It's not way too confusing," she said.

Tara claims the twins are addicted to computers.

"What they teach us is really easy, like, with the coding," she said. "I like that the drawing is easy and you can pick any colour you want."

Yasmeen didn't seem too concerned about spending the hottest summer days indoors. 

"I'm okay with it, because we're having fun in here too, and it's not the whole day so we can still go outside and play after this."

Sara said the girls might be playing outside if they weren't at the camp, but they might just be sitting in front of computer screens at home.

Blumental seems aware that the children could be getting more exercise than they do at his camp.

"At 12:30 they go on and they do whatever they want. I assume some of them go back home and sit in front of a screen, but I agree that they should go outside on a beautiful day, as well," he said.

"At break time they rush to the cookies, so that's some exercise."

Adam said any other kids interested in video games should try to learn coding.

"You should try it and it's really fun," he said, adding that he'll keep it up after the camp is over.

Follow Rafferty Baker on Twitter: @raffertybaker

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