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[Tumetsu]

Today I got an ad from mail along one of my entrance exam invitation papers about game programming summer camp. It piqued my interest, though I'm not sure if I will take it since it's pretty far here and I have one entrance exam in the first day of the camp.

Anyways I though to ask here what some game programmers think about camp's contents, are they worth of the price etc. or how good base they could give to create games. Camp is about XNA and Visual studio. My game development experience is so far mostly game maker based.

Contents of the camp:
- Basics of Visual studio and XNA.
- Game application's working basics.
- Basics of 2d game
- Basics of 2d mathematics
- Loading and presenting 2d assets
- User input
- Creating game mechanics
- Adding sounds
- Adding HUD and menu texts
- Developing a game

Price is 90 euros. Camp is designed for youths interested in game programming age 14-20.

There might be some translation errors I did as this was finnish ad

[oahda]

I've never been to a camp, but I'd say this seems like a great opportunity if you want to develop for the 360.

[DeadPixel]

If you feel that's the type of environment you learn best in then I say go for it.  Having a group of like-minded persons to bounce questions and ideas off of can be highly beneficial.  Not to mention you may meet some people to work with in the future.

Also if you're comfortable picking things up yourself we have a ton of free samples, code bits, and very helpful XNA forums over at the official forums http://forums.xna.com/forums/.  That avenue is always open to you.

[Dacke]

It's pretty much all the things you would need to know to get started. Once you know that stuff (and some general programming) you can do almost anything, given enough time and effort (when learning that stuff you learn how to learn more stuff). I think intensive crash courses can be a lot of fun too.

And even if it is XNA-specific, most of the things you learn will easily carry over to other languages/platforms.

Just be aware that things like these can be scams, so you should try to do some background research. Is it arranged by trustworthy people? What do people from previous years think?

[Toeofdoom]

Could be worthwhile, if you're interested in programming games. It's obviously not going to cover more than the basics of programming, but it's a way to get started. It's definitely focused on actually getting a game running which is nice.

[Tumetsu]

Just be aware that things like these can be scams, so you should try to do some background research. Is it arranged by trustworthy people? What do people from previous years think?

It's legit since it's arranged by college which also offers game development degrees and the ad came with the letter inviting to entrance exams to this college.

Good to know these are things which are actually needed However, I'm bit sceptical now if I can attend to it, since after a bit research, I found out it's about 306 kilometers away from here and I doubt that my father would take me there or lend a car since he has to that a couple of days before too when I go to exams there. And not to speak about how I have another exams at the same day in other town as the camp starts

However, I'd like to ask how difficult or time consuming to learn these things myself really is? Camp is about five days long with 8 hours studying. Not sure if I have time or will to start moving to another languages now but just asking

[Toeofdoom]

I wouldn't say it's hard to learn those things yourself, but I wouldn't think there's much of a faster way to learn them. I don't really think you'd have much trouble learning them anyway and if you'll end up learning programming in more detail in some course or whatever there probably isn't much point except to show you how to get to the game related stuff.

[Dacke]

What Toeofdoom said.

Except that "how to do the game-related stuff" is easier said than done. Standard programming courses often fail to tell you how to get simple graphics and real-time-input set up.

But once you know how to do that, you will find a million new uses for every new programming-thing you learn. So even if you start studying "proper" programming later, learning graphics/input on your own will pay off big-time in the long run. (At least it has for me )

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i'd say base it on how talented the instructor seems to be. find out who the instructor(s) will be, and take a look at the games they made. if they look better than what you can make, go for it, you've something to learn. if not, don't bother.