Ages 10-14
VR Game Design for Kids Ages 10-14 in Frisco, TX
Designing for VR forces a different kind of thinking: the player can look anywhere, so you cannot control the frame. Ninjas build worlds, then step inside and find out what they got wrong.
How it works
A weekly class for ages 10-14, taken alongside Create or on its own. Headsets are provided.
What they actually build
Their own environments and interactions - then they put the headset on and play them. The build-test loop is immediate and physical.
In the camp
Projects through the term
Across the term, each one building on the last.
A space at human scale
The first thing VR teaches is size. A room that looked right on a monitor is wrong the moment you stand in it.
Something the player can do
An interaction rather than a view: a thing to pick up, press or trigger.
A world with somewhere to go
Paths, thresholds and sightlines, so a player who can look anywhere still knows where to head.
A scene they have playtested
Built, worn, found wrong, changed. The headset is the test and it is unforgiving.
The concepts behind it
What they are actually learning
The building is the reason they turn up. These are the ideas they use to do it, shown the way they meet them, and they are the same ideas behind any programming language they pick up later.
Scale and proportion
Designing at life size rather than on a screen. Judging it needs the headset on, which is why they build and test in the same session.
Three dimensions
Position and rotation on three axes. The player chooses where to look, so nothing can be composed for one view.
Interaction
What the player can touch, and what the world does back.
Playtesting
Watching someone else wear it. Every assumption the designer made is visible within thirty seconds.
What they leave with
What they leave with
What a ninja can do after a term of this.
- Built a VR environment at a scale that works from inside it
- Made objects a player can pick up and act on
- Designed a space that guides a player who can look anywhere
- Playtested their own work in a headset and changed it
- Learned why a design that reads on a screen can fail in VR
School breaks
VR camps, too
During the school year it is a class a week. School breaks are full days, 9am to 3pm, with a finished project by the end.
Ages 6+3D Modeling AdvancedDesign models in Tinkercad and Blender, then 3D print them.
Ages 6+Coding Carnival TycoonBuild arcade games, then build the controllers to play them.
Ages 8+Digital Art & Game DesignColor theory, composition and pixel art, for games they design.Before you ask
Common questions
Is VR safe for children?
Sessions are short and supervised, with breaks built in, and headsets are fitted and cleaned by staff.
What if the headset makes them feel unwell?
Some children feel it and some never do. Time in the headset is kept short, a ninja takes it off whenever they want, and most of the session is spent building on a screen rather than wearing one.
Do we need a headset at home?
No. Headsets are provided and stay at the studio.
What do they actually make?
Their own environments and the things a player can do in them, tested in the headset in the same session they are built.
Does my child need to code first?
No. VR can be taken on its own, or alongside Create so they are coding at the same time.
See it for yourself
A free session is the honest way to judge whether this suits your child.
Open Monday to Thursday 4-7pm and Saturday 10am-2pm.