Game Development
We believe that games are an emergent form of learning. Video games create new social and cultural worlds – worlds that help people learn by integrating thinking, social interaction, and technology, all in service of doing things a student can care about. At the Digital Convergence Lab we play games, design games, and build games for fun and learning.
Each summer we offer video games camps for boys and girls from ages 10 and up just about every week of the summer except the week of July 4th. We offer day camps for middle school students and residential careers camp for high school students. We also started offering an Esports Bootcamp in 2018 for those students who want to play or support video games competitively in college and beyond.
This past year we started offering Saturday workshops at our NIU Naperville campus. Our calendar is constantly being updated with new camps and workshops.
Up Coming Events
STEAM Studio and Event Calendar
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Tuesdays and Thursdays, January 19 - 28: Building Terrain in Unity (High School Online Camp) |
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Tuesdays and Thursdays, February 2 - 11: Minecraft Virtual World Designer (Middle School Online Camp) |
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Tuesdays and Thursdays, February 16 - 25: Script a Collecting Game in Unity (High School Online Camp) |
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Tuesdays and Thursdays, March 2 - 11: Make a Space Game in GameMaker (Middle School Online Camp) |
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Tuesdays and Thursdays, March 16 - 25: Animate Environment in Unity (High School Online Camp) |
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Tuesdays and Thursdays, April 6 - 15: Minecraft Virtual World Designer with Python (Middle School Online Camp) |
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Tuesdays and Thursdays, April 20 - 29: Scripting Particle Systems in Unity (High School Online Camp) |
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Tuesdays and Thursdays, May 4 - 13: Make a Space Game in GameMaker (Middle School Online Camp) |
DCL Arcade
Play some games developed by the amazing staff at the Digital Convergence Lab!
Ludum Dare 35
Developers from around the world spent the weekend of April 15th 2016 creating games based on a theme suggested by the community. This year's theme was Shapeshift. This is both the longest running and the largest online game jam in the world! NIU's Digital Convergence Lab hosted Ludum Dare and four games were created by members of our Games Club. You can see the games that were created by clicking on the names of the creators.
Global Game Jam 2016
The Digital Convergence Lab hosted the 2016 Global Game Jam in the northern Illinois region from January 29-31. Participants throughout the world were challenged to design, develop, and, create games based on a single theme before the end of the weekend. This was a great opportunity for participants to explore new technology tools and to be intellectually challenged!
Ludum Dare 32
On April 17, 2015 the NIU Digital Convergence Lab hosted a team of students for the game jam Ludum Dare 32 at the Founders Memorial Library. During Ludum Dare, developers from around the world spent a weekend creating games based on a theme suggested by the community. It’s both the longest running, and the largest Online Game Jam in the world.
