Three Game Research and Interactive Design Lab games, built by digital media undergraduate students, won scholarship awards at the Shawnee 6.0 conference conducted Oct. 31at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio.
Awards sponsored by Workforce Innovation for Regional Economic Development (WIRED) and totaling $1,000 were given to the student games Chromatica, Deep Sea Deli and Blazar. Brandon Evans and Anthony Urso presented the games at the conference. The products beat out those from other competitors from across the state of Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia.
“We’re grateful that Shawnee offers an event that offers such prestigious prizes and public recognition for the hearts and souls that we’ve put into our projects,” said Urso. “We’re extremely proud of what we’ve done and getting acknowledgment for our work outside the faculty makes us feel like a success and that we’re going to make it in our field.”
The games were developed and worked on by a group of digital media students in the GRID Lab. Students who programmed the games include; seniors Tony Urso, Brandon Evans, Corey Dixon, Adam Moore; and juniors Jason Gillette and Jansen Wright. Sophomore Joshua Suhy also helped the group with sound.
“When I started working with these students last academic year, none of them had made a game before,” said John Bowditch, GRID Lab director and an instructor in the School of Media Arts and Studies. “They came in with little or no knowledge about the game development process. By the end of their first year, they completed three award winning games!”
Bowditch is impressed the students have progressed from novice to skilled game developers in a short span of time.
“As their instructor, it is the greatest reward to see them succeed with their ideas and to thrive as quickly as they have,” he said “I am confident they will make waves in the industry once they graduate.”
Development work on Chromatica began in fall 2007 and was completed this past spring. Deep Sea Deli was primarily developed over a single weekend last winter and perfected throughout spring quarter. The same student team began development work on Blazar in mid-summer and was completed in the hours just before the conference.
The scholarships will be used help cover travel costs to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco in the spring where the students plan on entering “Blazar” into the Independent Game Festival competition.
If you are interested in the open play testing for “Blazar” contact Tony at au115005@ohio.edu.
An Invitation to the GRID Lab
The campus community is encouraged to visit the GRID lab during the month of November to experience “SpaceTime Traveling Exhibition,” which features printed works, animation and interactive DVDs from students around the world.
The exhibit was displayed at the annual SIGGRAH, Special Interest Group for Graphics and Interactive Techniques, conference and is being shown at universities throughout the country for one month at a time.
“In bringing the exhibit here, we wanted to expose students to what other students are doing,” said Bowditch.
Bowditch worked with Beth Novak, fellow professor in the School of Media Arts and Studies and advisor of the OU SIGGRAPH chapter, to bring the exhibit to the school. The pair thought students were unaware of opportunities out there and wanted to expose students to possibilities.
“We wanted to light a fire under students,” said Novak. “We wanted them to come and think ‘that’s really cool I should be doing something of that level,’ or ‘I could have done that why didn’t I apply.’”
Universities with SIGGRAPH chapters were invited to apply to host the exhibit. With SIGGRAPH being such a new organization at Ohio University, Novak thought it would be an opportunity to let students know about the organization as well.
“Outside this microcosm that is OU, SIGGRAPH is a big deal, and we want all students to be aware of it,” said Novak.
The SIGGRAPH chapter has unofficially been at Ohio University for 2 years, being recognized by national SIGGRAPH last year, and by OU this year. The club is open to anyone who would like to join and has an interest in computer graphics.
For times that the exhibit will be open to the public visit www.gridlab.ohio.edu and for more information about the OU chapter of SIGGRAPH visit www.ousiggraph.com.
By Kristen Rapin, kr323705@ohio.edu Published Thursday, November 06, 2008
Published by Scripps College of Communication http://www.scrippscollege.ohio.edu