Game Camp Nation

★★★★★Sarah Everhart

We wanted a place for our son to get some programming experience over the summer and he's been BEGGING to do a sleepaway summer camp. We found this camp online and read other reviews and it seemed to be quality. He was living his best life at this camp! They got to learn a bit of programming and pixel art design (the pixel art was his favorite) as well as have time to play pretty much any video game he could access. I am glad there were other kids in the younger age range (9-12/13) as I admit I was a bit nervous when we left our 10 year old in a room full of 15 year old boys. My son said that all the other campers were really nice and they all played games and had a great week. Hoping the camp returns to the Charlotte area next summer so that we can re-enroll him again!

★★★★★Aiden D

super fun, had a great time while i was there. lots to do including VR and plenty of free play time to get to know the other campers better. the overnight option is very fun with different activities planed each night. will definitely be coming back.

★★★★★Kathy Schaeffer

My son attended the Hearthstone eSports camp in Charlotte, NC, and we were all very impressed by the program and the camp staff. Margo and the team were wonderful--fun, organized, very accommodating, and very skilled! He was initially a bit reluctant to attend but ended up being very impressed by the quality of the camp and instructors. I even think he enjoyed the low-tech time and games just as much as the online gaming--which was a nice surprise. We both appreciated that they even accommodated his limited lunch options with non-cheese, custom pizzas! We will definitely look forward to another camp experience with Game Camp Nation in the future and highly recommend it!

★★★★★Dawn Thompson

My two sons have attended Game Camp Nation in Atlanta for the last 4 years and will be attending again this year – 2017The camp is not only educational (they learned how to program and develop a game!) but lots of fun. Both of my sons stayed over-night (we live 4 hours away) – they made some great friends which they still keep in touch with. I feel very happy leaving my boys there knowing that they will have a great week. The students do not sit behind a screen all day – they had fun in the pool and played games in the fresh air! My eldest son has enjoyed it so much that last year he was a Junior Counselor and hopes to progress to a full Counselor. I would highly recommend Game Camp Nation. The staff are extremely friendly, the children learn whilst having fun and making life-long friends. Money well spent!

★★★★★Nicolas Davis

Prior to the summer of 2012, I had no idea what I was going to do with my time. Searching the web for options relating to video games, as most young boys would, I came across two options for video game camps in the North Carolina area: the first was Game Camp Nation, a camp dedicated to teaching kids from ages 9-17 how to design and code video games, and the second was a university game development camp, where campers would spend two weeks creating downloadable content for a pre-existing game. With these options in mind, I had to weigh the pros and the cons, and came to the conclusion that Game Camp Nation would be a more rewarding and educational experience than the latter. After all, creating something from scratch is far more interesting than making something for a preexisting product. The decision to pick Game Camp Nation was the correct decision, without a doubt. From the moment I showed up to the hotel, I felt that I was going to have a fantastic time. Entering the computer lounge only confirmed this feeling. With a plethora of games available for play and a cast of intriguing characters in the counselors, the camp made me feel like I was about to have the greatest sleepover of my life. Coding and design were the backbone of my time at the camp. I spent incredible amounts of time creating sprites and programming their functions, such that I could hardly distinguish the design from programming due to the interlocking nature of the activities. I jumped headfirst into unexplored territory and succeeded with little fallout. Of course, not all was business and work. Throughout the day, fellow campers and I engaged in console warfare, battling it out head-to-head in gaming tournaments to prove who truly reigned as the king of the hill. Though there were some prizes at stake, we disregarded the prizes in place of enjoying some intense racing action and melees of epic proportions. Accompanying music filling us with adrenaline, we would lose ourselves for minutes at a time, feeling as though we were the characters doing battle on the screens before us. Though we were there to play and create games, we also spent time in the low-tech rec: a period of the day where screens are nowhere to be found, board games rule the tables, and campers get to mellow out by the pool. These periods were some of the most entertaining times of the camp, despite what some may believe. Getting away from the screen, our eyes enjoyed the warmth of the sun and the mystique of the Werewolf card game (along with other options, of course). While my first experience that summer came to an unfortunate conclusion due to medical concerns, I was determined to return to the camp the next year with a drive to create and play my heart out. Indeed, I returned every summer for the next four years, even traveling from North Carolina to Boston to keep up with the camp. If anyone would even remotely consider this camp, they should consider how fun it must be for someone to fly out from Dayton at six in the morning and land in Boston hours later just to experience it one more time. If someone is willing to travel across the country for this camp, you know it must be grand.