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Game Development Summer Program 2023

Showing our work to Artists for Humanity students and hosting a gaming competition

4 high school students and 2 college students produced 4 video games in 5 weeks in the first Boston Cyberarts summer program. Our goal was to introduce high school students with no previous game experience to Unity game development. We hoped to use their newly developed skills to not only develop games but to think about augmented reality development. We challenged them to look at monuments during field trips in Boston and with their new found skills to propose ways to update those monuments or create new ones with augmented reality.

For over 20 years Boston Cyberarts has promoted digital art. We have a great track record engaging and helping to develop college students. We are proud of the work we did this summer with 14-17 year olds in the City of Boston SuccessLinks program. The City paid the students $15 an hour to work for us for 25 hours a week Cyberarts hired Zach Shirikjian, a graduate of Fitchburg State’s game design program to lead the project with the help of two college students funded by the City. The rising college sophomores from Harvard and UMass Boston used their computer science skills and experience as Boston natives to not only teach technology but also to look at their city with different eyes.

This was all made possible through a partnership with Artists for Humanity(AFH). The city encouraged our partnership and AFH loaned us administrative support, wise council, and computers to help make the program possible. We are proud that the work of our students will be represented in the AFH summer show on August 24 at the AFH building in South Boston.

Learn more at https://www.afhboston.org/event/big-summer-show-2023