Great Lakes Gaming hosts exhibition day for kids who built their own video games

September 5, 2026 - 11:56

A group of local kids spent their summer making their own video games, and this week they finally got to show them off. Great Lakes Gaming held an exhibition day where young developers, some as young as eight, presented the projects they had been building over the past few months. The event turned a classroom project into a real arcade experience, with parents, friends, and curious visitors walking from station to station to try out each game.

The kids didn't just pick a template and change the colors. They learned real coding logic, designed their own characters, wrote simple storylines, and worked through bugs when things didn't work the first time. For many of them, it was the first time they had seen a project through from start to finish. One twelve-year-old built a platformer where the main character has to avoid falling junk while collecting batteries. Another group of three friends teamed up to make a two-player racing game with a homemade steering wheel made from cardboard and a keyboard.

The organizers said the goal was not to push every kid toward a career in tech, but to show them that making games is something they can actually do. A few parents admitted they were surprised by how much their kids picked up on their own. The event ended with a short Q&A session where the kids talked about what they learned, what they would do differently next time, and which games from other kids they wanted to play again.