Game Demo Night Recap

Sorry this has come so late, but I hope you find that it was worth the wait. Here are the presentations from our Game Demo Night that took place in February, with links for some of the presenters.

IPKeys – IPKeys presented their latest work on a serious game simulation for the Army. They not only gave an overview of the technology and programs they used, but also the motivation for serious games for military use, and the kinds of decisions they had to make during the development process. The presentation ended with some fun physics simulations including death-defying hummer jumps and stacks of barrels.

Aaron – Aaron showcased the concept and beginning stages of his development of a modular board game concept. The game system is meant to be expanded with a board that includes dynamic terrain that affects gameplay.

Here is the link to the rules of Aaron's game, Hexscape: http://kavwoosh.s3.amazonaws.com/Hexcape%20Rules%20v1.0.pdf

Matt – Matt showed some previous game design work, but he focused on his most recent game, Orchard. Orchard was an example of how a simple game concept can be expanded to many different game experiences. Matt also showed off his level editor, which allowed him to focus on the design of his levels for Orchard without dealing with too much code.

A link to Matt's website: http://matt.yanos.com
If the above link doesn't work, the site is mostly mirrored at: http://www.mechanicsburgvetclinic.com/myc/

Alex – Alex was the representative for The X Points Game Studio, a group of developers working on a mod for Neverwinter Nights 2. The mod is going to be a meta-analysis of modern game design and will focus on how player decisions affect game play.

For more information about the project, go to http://thexpoints.com/studio/

Mike – Mike gave a short talk about news updates regarding upcoming expos and information about game recruiters which may be helpful to those looking for jobs in the industry. Here are the links Mike presented:
www.gamexpo.us - GameX Video Game Expo
www.gamasutra.com - Game Industry News Portal
www.gamesindustry.biz - Game Industry News Portal
www.gamedev.net - Game Development Community
www.gamemusicinc.com - Mike's plug for his video game music studio
www.gamecareerguide.com - Site containing articles for those looking to break into the industry
www.mary-margaret.com - Interactive Media Recruiting Site

Penn State – Professor Joe Oakes introduced the game development class at Penn State, which connects American Penn State students and German students to collaborate overseas and make a finished game by the end of the semester. The German students were available to present the progress they made on the games, which were all different takes on the racing genre. The students demoed the games and walked us through their development choices and challenges.

Penn Game Development Team – I and the rest of the Penn Game Development Team presented the latest progress on our cell phone game “Cell Game”. Cell Game is an overhead space shooter where the player ship is composed of cells which have their own unique functions, but can also break off. The player increases the size of the ship by gathering the pieces from destroyed enemy ships.
Gameplay video
Slides from the presentation

--posted by Ian Perera