This July, Massive Entertainment launched Future Coders Camp in collaboration with partners from Spelens Hus and Datatjej. The event aimed to bring a rewarding and fun learning experience to the younger generation.
With another school year coming to an end, kids, and teenagers all over Sweden are leaving for their long-awaited summer holidays. While summer days are the perfect time to spend time in the sun, school break can also be a great opportunity for young people to learn and try something new!
It is always interesting to discover and learn something related to your hobbies and interests. If video games are one of them, why not learn how groundbreaking video games are crafted and explore the magical world of programming?
But how do you introduce kids and teenagers to the video games industry and explain programming in a fun and engaging way? At Massive we came up with the idea of a three-day Coders Camp for young adults.
Future Coders Camp is about creating a fun and safe playground for young people to be themselves and express their creativity.
In July, we launched the Future Coders Camp in collaboration with Spelens Hus and Datatjej. The course was specifically designed for children and young adults aged 9 to 14, helping them learn the basics of coding in a fun and rewarding way.
“Future Coders Camp is about creating a fun and safe playground for young people to be themselves and express their creativity,” David Antell, PR & Communications Manager at Massive Entertainment, says. “We believe that this initiative will inspire the younger generation to discover the magic of coding and help create a more accessible and diverse future for our industry.”
Massive Games Lab is full of energy and inspiration, as the first group of our young guests has just joined our Future Coders Camp. To give every young coder enough time to learn, practice, and explore the creative world behind video games, all students of the Camp were divided into two groups: the first group came to the office in the morning, and the second one in the afternoon.
At the beginning of the Camp, the children had introductory lectures from mentors and our colleagues at Massive to get to know Massive Entertainment and to dive into the endless possibilities of the world of programming.
It was so lovely to see that one kid might be more into the graphics, draw amazing details and really think about how the game looks.
From the basics of coding, to testing game design by creating backgrounds, characters, and different elements, to developing a simple game – the essential part of Future Coders Camp was to give young people hands-on experience and to make the learning process easy and engaging, the creative visual platform Scratch was used. The platform is specifically designed for kids and young adults and has a simple visual interface that makes it easier to grasp basic concepts.
“It was so lovely to see that one kid might be more into the graphics, draw amazing details and really think about how the game looks,” Carolina J. Säll, developer at 46elks and Business Manager at Datatjej, says, “while another kid might be 10 steps ahead in their head, thinking about how level 5 should behave in the game without having even finished level 1 in the code. It reminded me that imagination has no limits – dream big and see what happens!”
Starting from scratch, copying one game in detail, and making it work with their own code, our students quickly became familiar with the principles of programming and began to discover new wonders of code. Inspired by the endless possibilities of programming, our young coders used everything they learned at Future Coders Camp and their boundless imagination to create their own games on the last day of the Camp. Trying, failing, and succeeding in a wonderful creative process – they came up with amazing ideas referencing other games they play themselves.
“One kid shouted at the last session: ‘I love this Camp! When can we take part in it again?’ It felt like the highest praise any coding mentor could ever get, so I would definitely say that many of our students are still deep in code, creating games at home,” Carolina says. “I think that organizing Code Camps like this is crucial for young adults to get inspired, motivated and be able to explore together with other likeminded people, seeing goals that they can aim for and achieve.”
Creating new worlds and gaming experiences is an integral part of Massive, but no less important focus for us is our impact on the world around us. We believe that through initiatives like Future Coders Camp, we can have a positive impact on both the younger generation and the future of the video games industry.
“We are so happy being able to offer this type of activity to children and teenagers in our work to inspire a new generation of developers. If we have encouraged interest and sparked curiosity in one child, we have succeeded.” Karolina Lundin, CSR and Communications Manager at Massive Entertainment, says.
Useful links
- Inspiring a new generation with our Role Model Program.
