My 7-year-old son attended the "Design with Minecraft" camp at Bellevue College, and he absolutely loved it. While the camp is quite pricey (over $1,000 for 5 days!), the experience was worth it. Drop-off and pick-up was hassle-free, the instructors were fantastic with the kids, and they even held a fun parent showcase at the end where my son got to present what he designed. They also did a special ceremony where each child "graduated," and the instructors gave a personalized speech for each one, which was a nice touch. My son had an especially memorable time because one of the camp days fell on his birthday. The instructor (I think he went by "Cheese Puff") made it extra special by dressing up and leading the group in singing Happy Birthday to him--definitely a highlight for my son. Overall, while the camp is expensive, it was a great experience and worth the investment. read more

class vr level design i was a young teenager and had to keep busy all summer so i went to this vr level design camp of course i did nothing i made some friends at the end of the camp they gave me the vr headset with no internet restrictions and a single controller how convenient so i went to town and played cards with strangers. staff was nice tell them roman said hello. read more

Class: Roblox Entrepreneur: Imaginative Game Design Location: University of Washington - Poplar Hall My son had a blast. Everyday we checked in with him he told us everything they did. They didn't just sit on computers all day but they also walked around the UW campus and had free time outside. It was such a good experience. He met a lot of new people that he will be keeping in touch with and is excited to go back next year and try other classes. read more

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4th Year of Camp for a VERY happy camper! My daughter has taken the "3D Modeling with Maya" camp twice through Alexa Cafe (all girls camp) and stayed overnight. It has been a great way for her to connect with other geeky girls and study or get introduced to topics she really cares about. She attended an overnight IDTech camp at The University of Denver for "Wearable Technology" when she was 11. (She absolutely loved it and came up with a programmable stuffed dough nut that could be sold to raise money for feeding the hungry.) She met girls from all over the country who were interested in the same things she was interested in - for the first time in her life - and she begs to go back to IDTech every year. We've sent our daughter to two overnight camps (two summers in a row) at The University of Washington for 3D Modeling with Maya, and she's hooked on modeling now! This summer, she's going to explore AI for a change. We may even splurge and give her some good exposure to general Computer Science or send her to a 2-week workshop. The Alexa Cafe instructors are wonderful, and they care about their girls' camp experience! I highly recommend ALEXA CAFE for anyone who wants to help their girls find birds of a feather, get some actual personal interaction, and build life skills as well as programming skills. The girls don't just learn, they have fun! We'll just keep coming back and my daughter will keep learning all the cool tech! read more

Very disappointed in what amounts to an ultra expensive day care for a week. Most appropriate for kids under ten who want to play video games and parents who want to part with $1,200 per child. This is my best description for the "VR Design with Unity and Oculus Go." No coding to speak of, cut and paste codes without context or educating, just a cash grab by the designers. Runs for working hours so clearly designed to get working parent(s) kids in. My 16 year old was so annoyed and bored at the lack of learning and quality of the program. We spent $1200 so we made him go after first day but what a waste. I cringed as he gave me the daily recap. Avoid this there is only exposure to gaming with very little learning not coding a complete waste of hard earned money. read more

What did my daughter learn at this camp? Well, it certainly wasn't coding. After the instructor read my daughter's instructor evaluation, confronted her about it, and forced her TWICE to give him a higher rating, I would never send my child here again. What a waste of $2,000! I signed my kids up for the Java programming class to prepare them for AP Computer Science, as iD Tech advertised that this class was great prep for the AP exam. The class was a complete joke. iD Tech says their camps are taught by students from universities like MIT and Stanford. That was not the case for the instructor my kids' received. He had very limited knowledge of Computer Science and couldn't answer the most basic of questions. He was clueless and couldn't even help them program Pong correctly. Most of the class was spent playing games without a lot of coding going on. It ended up feeling like really, really expensive, super subpar childcare. My kids, who love camps, begged me not to make them go each day. And then there was the instructor evaluation. My daughter tried to give some honest feedback that the instructor didn't seem to have a strong knowledge of the subject matter. She wasn't trying to be mean, but she graded him accurately about his lack of coding knowledge. The evaluations weren't supposed to be read by the instructors, but my daughter's instructor took the evaluation out of the privacy envelope, read it, and demanded my daughter change it. As he stood over her, she changed the level she'd given him to one higher. He told her that wasn't good enough and to raise it to the highest level. This experience left her upset and discouraged and made me outraged that the instructor would treat a student this way. I spoke to the director of the program. He apologized and offered to let my kids attend another camp at another location for free, but my kids said it was so awful that they'd never go back. So I'm out $2,000, and my kids never did learn to code from iD Tech. read more

We've taken our children to ID Tech camps for 3 consecutive summers, beginning the summer of 2014. They attended at 3 different universities, as well: Stanford (2014), Sac State (2015), and University of Washington (2016). The University of Washington classes were great; we do wish the kids weren't playing video games as much as we heard (from our kids) that they were. This camp is expensive; we'd like them to receive instruction as much as possible. We also feel strongly that the instructors should be excellent, and from the university, when possible. We did, however, like that the kids were introduced to the university campus as a part of the program. read more

My child participated in the IDTech camp, Build Your Own Laptop. Given the price (over $1K/week), we had high expectations: 1. she would build a laptop that works for longer than a month. It is a Pi-top and after one month, the battery does not work so she has to use it plugged in. 2. she would understand the workings of the laptop so that if she needs to, she can make another one or improve the one she has. The instructions were more like following a Lego kit: you can build one, but don't necessarily understand why or how it works together. 3. there would be more time building than coding. It was 1 day of building, 4 days of coding 4. she would understand coding on a more fundamental level in order to code programs on her own. Instead, the instructions were more "cut and paste" (her words, not ours). In her school, where she does learn coding (lucky I know!) her tech teacher shows the kids the basics, then lets them explore on their own to truly learn what works and doesn't, and to extend what they've learned in different ways. There was none of that kind of exploration. On the plus side, the customer care experience has been superlative. We gave negative feedback on the last day of camp, and someone called us within a day or so. They refunded a part of the camp. Our daughter is signed up for a 2nd week, at Alexa Cafe, and we'll see how that goes. Our initial reaction was to pull her from that camp, but the IDTech folks are letting her try it for a day, and if she doesn't like it, she can drop out and they will refund the whole week. We are lucky that if she isn't in camp for that week, it would be OK. Another plus was that our daughter liked the counselor and found her approachable and funny. read more

This review pertains to the UW Seattle location. Imagine this, you sign your kid up for camp. S/He makes some friends at the camp. For the one-hour social lunch, your kid goes to one building and sits alone, while the friends are all together in another building having lunch together. That is exactly what happened to my kid. I was wondering why they were pushing us to buy the lunch at first-day check in and I learned why soon after. It's a horrible setup and ID Tech seems unwilling to do anything about it. read more

This is an awesome camp. If your kids are like mine, they enjoy video games. Why not have them learn to make their own?! Fun and educational. I swear, no one is paying me to write this! My boys LOVE this camp. They ask to go every year. This is our 4th year. The counselors are fun and they make learning fun too. Granted this is a somewhat geeky camp. They have computer game contests (within the camp as well as between sister camps around the country) and when I come in for the presentation I don't understand all the lingo. The kids act as interpreters.... They do see the light of day and go outside during breaks. Cons: A little pricey Pros: Totally worth it knowing that the kids enjoy it and they are learning useful and may actually help them in the future. read more

Used to attend this camp when I was a kid and it turned me off from the game design fields just from the sheer amount of bullying and hostility that went on when parents weren't around. The activities were fun and the amount of independence that the camp granted kids was great, and I loved the camp at first, but as I went back over the years it would get worse since staff would turn a blind eye to any problematic kids or even would be rude themselves. read more

This camp was a disappointment. The course description for learning to design your own Mine Craft game and reality which was playing Mine Craft all day for about $1000 a week was a huge disconnect. When I started asking questions, I was told my son was in the wrong camp and that he should not return, leaving him disappointed and me furious as I had no childcare. My refund is still not right, and iD Tech corporate is totally not responsive, but they have kept me on camp event invitation and overall mailing lists which seems to reflect poor management and emphasis on marketing. If I had taken the time to read reviews of this camp offering from many sites across the country, I would have realized I was making a mistake before I made it. Try a more reputable local coding or animation camp and check the reviews carefully. read more

This camp is amazingly well run. So reliable, pleasant, and intelligent. Feels like it's run by really smart people who are also practical about students as well as the realities of busy professionals. Drop off and pick up are easy. Staff are quirky and friendly and there is a great deal of consistency year to year, which tells you a lot. Campers are known by name, and they have a lot of fun. Clearly, though, they also learn tons. It isn't video game camp exactly since there are games outdoors and many activities. One day I spotted my son crossing the Univ. of Washington campus, where I teach, and he was having a blast. Think of it as a camp that imparts skills in logic and creativity whose chosen medium is digital. This is our third session (second year) and we will be back next year. We recommend this camp to all my son's friends, and a number of them have signed up this year. read more