UCLA Game Lab Summer
Do you love video game play and design? And are you looking for a robust summer experience where you can enhance your capabilities in both? The Game Lab Summer Institute at UCLA is an intensive introduction to analog and digital game making that engages both artistic and technical capabilities.
The UCLA Game Lab Summer Institute introduces high school students to game-making as a form of artistic practice, teaching them the techniques and tools that will help them develop analog and digital games that reflect their own creative voice and vision. No previous game-making skills are required, but students with an interest in games and in the visual arts in particular will find the curriculum especially stimulating and rewarding.
The UCLA Game Lab Summer Institute is committed to diversity, and the program welcomes students of all cultural, racial, gender, linguistic, geographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds and physical abilities. Women in particular are encouraged to participate in the program (see Financial Aid, under Fees and Payment, for more information).
Students in the program develop a solid aesthetic and technical foundation in various aspects of game design--but just as importantly, they begin learning how to express their own, personal ideas through game-making and game art.
Taught by alumni of the internationally renowned UCLA Game Lab, the two-week program leads students through four, hands-on courses in game development. These workflow-oriented classes focus on:
Learning the fundamentals of game design
Creating compelling game characters
Building game worlds
Programming/coding games
By the end of the two weeks, students will have created complete games or game assets in each of the four classes. This work is exhibited on the last day of the program in a gallery-like installation at UCLA, and students leave the program with game art they can include in their college-application portfolios.
The institute also provides students with a rare opportunity to glimpse college life in a cutting-edge design department, receive invaluable feedback that will prove useful to academic and career considerations in the gaming field, and earn four units of pass/no pass UC credit.
The program costs $2,300, and there may be financial aid available.
How do I get started? Go to their website and apply.
How do I expand this narrative arc? If video game creation and computer science is your narrative arc, consider building on this interest with one of the following:
Donate your voice to help train A.I. to give voice to people who do not have their own. Vocail ID is a fantastic, interesting and quick project to do for students interested in A.I.
Organize and host a hackathon at your high school to solve a community problem. This article gives some great tips about how to organize one.
Apply for a highly selective summer program that focuses on computer science and programming.
Consider organizing an impact project in your community to help the elderly or sick using video games.
HOT TIP: This is an interesting summer option for a teen who loves gaming and computer science. It’s a good opportunity to develop a product for a portfolio and to get experienced supervision on the technical and practical elements of game design. The program will have more Wow! factor if you’re a serious tech/computer science kid looking to expand or deepen your narrative arc. It will be less valuable (from a resume perspective) to someone who really just like to play video games. See below for more information about summer programs in general.
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT SUMMER PROGRAMS: College admissions officers are very adept at identifying “resume padders”: expensive, one-off programs paid for by your parents which do not mesh with your narrative arc. Therefore, make sure any summer program or course you consider falls into one (or more) of these four buckets:
Highly selective/competitive
Totally unique + linked to your narrative arc
Evidence of adulthood (long hours, multi-year commitment or simply hard work)
A jumping off point or expansion for an authentic narrative arc.
If none of the above apply, a program could still have value to you if it allows you to test a potential interest. However, if it does not end up being a jumping off point for further interests, then you may not want to mention it in your high school resume