Students Learn Immersive Gaming Skills During Virtual Reality Camp
More than 20 junior high and high school students spent a week learning how to create immersive games and virtual reality content for Meta during the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s third annual virtual reality summer camp held July 31 to Aug. 4.
The 21 students learned how to create immersive games for the Meta Quest and Meta Quest 2 using the program, Unity, in the Emerging Analytics Center at UA Little Rock. At the end of the camp, students are set up with developer accounts if they want to continue to create games and other virtual reality content for Meta.
Students who participated in the camp include Liam Bunch, Gale Duncan, Elijah Goodrich, Daniel Steele, Brayden Pruss, Jack Huddleston, Ethan Pleis, Emerson Pleis, Jamie Winchel, Micah Ficklin, Samantha Stoddard, Brooklynn Gray, Raha Kalantari, Kerem Karabacak, Sam Reyes, Drayce Wallace, Harper Bennings, Henry Gillespie, Kairi Reichard, Cohen Harris, and Maaziah Guy.
The students learned how to use the Unity program to create virtual reality games involving a scavenger hunt, basketball, dodgeball, and a space adventure.
“My favorite game was the basketball game since I am a basketball player and love basketball,” said Kairi Reichard, a sixth grader at Mountain Pine Elementary School who plans to play in the Women’s National Basketball Association one day. “I came to virtual reality camp because I thought it would be fun, and I feel like I’m really good at virtual reality.”
As a two-time camp veteran, Cohen Harris, an eighth grader at Robinson Middle School, got the opportunity to create his own virtual reality project. He is a fan of Gorilla Tag, an open-source virtual reality game, and is working to create 3D models for Gorilla Tag.
Cohen said that attending virtual reality camp is helping him build the skills he needs for his future career as a game designer and developer.
“Virtual Reality Camp has been really fun,” Cohen said. “All the teachers are nice and are willing to help you. On my own computer, I have Blender and Unity. I can use Blender to make 3D models and animations to use with Gorilla Tag.”
