Playing online video games is like running through a minefield of curse words. Watch Your Language is a tool kit trying to make the gaming experience more family friendly.

This Student Innovation Project (SIP), created by duo Rocky Vargas and Michael Shepherd, monitors what players are saying and flags inappropriate words. Rocky explains, “Our innovation claim is that gameplay is intensified by turning to foul language gamers use into a mechanic for punishment.”

There isn’t anything for gaming that uses speech recognition this way. If Watch Your Language detects vulgar words, alarms sound and the monitor will display the word. This mechanic is meant to monitor in real-time and can be universally used because there is a coded element that can be written for any word.

Because of the code, this technology can expand into more than just the gaming industry. Software and other technologies written in code can apply Watch Your Language if it’s compatible with a microphone.

Rocky wrote the original code to detect specific words and activated the streaming portion of this SIP. Michael polished the code and hooked it all up.

Do you want to drive the future of games? Check out UAT’s Game Programming degree.

Looters of the Arcane is a post-modern survival horror game where players travel to past eras to find mysterious objects. With the use of a Time Sphere, players can collect these objects for the antiquities company they currently work for in the distant future.

The purpose of the game is to find the arcane objects and sell them to the highest bidder. Because the lost objects are things that shaped the current world, the game has a surreal effect.

Creator Regis Jerry says this game is an “environment with a personality.” Also known as True PVE, this sets the game apart from other PVE games and gives it an innovative factor. The game’s AI gives the player a completely immersive experience through environmental challenges thrown at the player.

As a player levels up, the environment becomes more difficult to beat. This sense of differing personalities gives the player the ability to use the environment or let it hinder them. Visit places like Ancient Egypt, The Asylum, Ancient Greece and Feudal Japan.

Players can use guns and crosses found within the different environments to fight off elements of the environment that is trying to kill them.

You can play Looters of the Arcane on Steam for free.

Are you interested in the gaming industry? UAT offers degrees in Game Design, Game Programming and Game Art and Animation.

For many years, game developers have run into the same problem over and over again: How do we explain our game without boring the player to death? Nobody wants to read a manual on how to play your game and nobody wants to play a 30 minute tutorial. A good game should be able to teach you how to play the game naturally in a fun and engaging way. This idea of how you teach the mechanics of your game is called conveyance and it’s a big part of what separates a mediocre game from a good one!

In classic video games, conveyance was much easier than the games of today. With games on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the controls were limited to the hardware, only having access to a 4-directional d-pad, start, select, A, and B. Because of these limitations as well as the far simpler game mechanics of that era, they often didn’t require tutorials to teach the player how to play. You would just start the game and figure out how to play. A game like Super Mario Bros. could just drop you into level 1-1 and let you push buttons until you figured it out. Today, however, controllers are much more complicated and the mechanics of games have expanded heavily and because of that, this method doesn’t really work anymore.

Players need to have an idea of not only how to control your game, but the mechanics that drive your game. A great example of how to do this is Portal. In Portal, the mechanics of the game are unlike any other and could be extremely overwhelming to a new player. To address this, as well as teaching you in a creative, story-driven way, the game has the artificial intelligence ‘GLaDOS’ guide you through a few simple test chambers that teach you all of the mechanics of the game one piece at a time. This not only helps to avoid boring tutorials, but also gives context to the situation, provides entertaining dialogue, and allows you to learn the game in a legitimate way. They are conveying the same information as a boring sign that says “place portal on the wall and go through”, but in a way that entertains and keeps players interested in the game.

Another game that I love that makes great use of conveyance is the first Dark Souls game. Dark Souls is a game that rewards exploration and experimentation. After players have learned the basic mechanics and controls of the game through the game’s admittedly mediocre tutorial level, they are left in a big open world and left to wander in any direction they choose. As the players explore, they will slowly be pushed in the right direction, not by the game forcing them, but by the limitations of their own skill. A new player may head in one direction, but find that it is far too difficult, so they choose the more common path. As they go along this common path, they will encounter new enemies and learn the ways to beat them one at a time in a controlled environment. There are no tutorials on how to defeat the enemies; learning that past the initial controls is up to the individual players. Once again, rather than having a big sign that points them in the right direction and tutorial popups on every enemy, Dark Souls conveys the same information through clever design and allowing the player to experiment and discover solutions on their own.

So, as you can see, being creative in the way you teach your game’s mechanics can make the difference. Every game is different, however, and you’ll always need to be consciously thinking about how you can teach your game to the player. For some games, less is more, and having a simple level that allows your player to experiment may be the best course of action. For others, your game might be very complex and you’ll need a way to teach them whether it be a tutorial sequence or something more creative and story driven like portal. Either way, no matter what the game, always try to avoid having a boring, time consuming tutorial like many that are far too common in games today.

University of Advancing Technology (UAT) is known for innovation—students take that to heart and are even inspired to rearrange their dorm rooms because of it. Ross Hall, Kevin Albregard, Darren Palermo and Andrew Weisenberger are a group of suitemates who decided to convert their connected bedroom suite into a sleeping room and a game room.

They moved all four desks into one room and the beds into the other room to create a paramount lounge and gaming space. The game room is filled with gaming systems and computers, making it the ultimate gaming man cave. They’ve set up an unmatched gaming experience that everyone on their floor wants to be a part of.

Interested in a future with gaming? UAT offers degrees in Game Programming, Game Design and Game Art and Animation.

University of Advancing Technology (UAT) students love unwinding with video games after a long day of classes and studying. Students thrive when they have a healthy school-life balance and playing cult classic video games is one way they relax while out of class.

Find your friends at UAT and chill out while playing the hottest, or longest running, video games. UAT is chock full of gamers, on and offline, physical and digital, with favorites like League of Legends, Fallout 4 and Elder Scrolls.

Check out our Game Studies degrees!

The Animation Career Review has been researching and ranking the nation's top schools for aspiring animators and game designers since 2012. UAT's Bachelor of Arts in Game Design is ranked in the top 20 game design BA programs nationally, top 10 in the Southwest and #1 in Arizona.

The goal of the Animation Career Review is to "give students and their parents access to ample information so they can make an informed decision about the school they choose to attend and the program they pursue."

The criteria for the rankings encompasses:

• Academic reputation
• Admissions selectivity
• Depth and breadth of the program
• Value as it relates to tuition and indebtedness
• Geographic location
• Employment data

One of UAT's top game design grads is 2018 alumnus Eric Fernald, who landed his dream job and bought his dream car immediately after he graduated. Eric works as a game scenario designer at CGI, where he works with the latest software and hardware in game development such as VBS3 and Unreal Engine 4 to create training video games, battlefield visualizations and battle scene reenactments for the United States military.

      Eric Fernald's Demo Reel

"I choose UAT because of the intimate campus setting and constant addition of new technologies on campus," Eric said. He cites hands-on classes such as Game Production Studio, tough-love professors like Matthew Marquit and solid support from the Career Services team as reasons for his success. 

UAT game design alumnus Tyler Feddeler recently landed his first job at a AAA studio as a lighting artist at 343 Industries, where he works on a little game called Halo. Even though his degree is in game design, Tyler got to take art and animation classes during his time at UAT too. It took him a while to discover his niche in lighting, but once he did, he went all in on it. 

Electronic Arts (EA) assistant producer Brandon Kidwell graduated from UAT with his bachelor's degree in game design in 2013. He has worked on multiple AAA titles, including the mobile game Madden NFL Overdrive. He built the 2018 Madden Feast program, which lead to high player sentiment and one of the highest revenue days of the year. 

Want to be like Eric, Tyler and Brandon? Check out our Game Design program today!

According to the Bachelor’s Degree Center Organization, a free guide to traditional and online bachelor’s degree programs in all disciplines, recently announced four rankings of the best Game Design bachelor’s degree programs in the US.

PRNewswire reported that the four ranking categories are:

25 Best Bachelor's in Game Design Degree Programs for 2019 
(https://www.bachelorsdegreecenter.org/best-game-design-degree/) 
15 Best Online Game Design Bachelor's Degree Programs for 2019  
(https://www.bachelorsdegreecenter.org/best-online-game-design-degree/) 
10 Fastest Online Game Design Bachelor's Degree Programs for 2019 
(https://www.bachelorsdegreecenter.org/fastest-online-game-design-degree/) 
10 Most Affordable Online Game Design Bachelor's Degree Programs for 2019 
(https://www.bachelorsdegreecenter.org/affordable-game-design-degree/)

In the category for Fastest Accredited Online Game Design Bachelor’s Programs for 2019, the University of Advancing Technology was ranked third. UAT was also ranked #6 for Best Game Design Degree Online.

According to the BDC, "Enthusiasm for video games has created a global industry projected to reach $140 billion by 2020." Game degrees also reach further than just the Xbox, PC and Playstation. "Game art, design, and development are becoming central to all kinds of industries, from medicine (with doctors and nurses training on simulations) to education (with the gamification of learning) and even the military (with simulated training and drone warfare becoming key to protecting forces). Students learning programming and designing today will be transforming industries in ways we can't even predict tomorrow."

UAT continues to be regularly recognized as one of the top Game Design and Game Production degree programs in the country, offering accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission.

More than 14,000 people apply for Blizzard’s summer internship program. They hire around 100 interns. That’s a 0.71% acceptance rate. How do we know this information? Because we tweeted at their careers account. Twitter is an invaluable game dev job search tool. For example, Professor Clark’s nephew got his last three jobs at AAA studios from Twitter! In such a competitive industry, job seekers need to employ multiple tools and job search strategies to succeed.

UAT Students take on GDC 2019.

Another excellent resource for job-seeking game developers is the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and other conferences. “Do some research before you go to the conference,” UAT Game Development Professor Adam Moore said. Find out what positions each company is hiring for and what type of games they are working on. Don’t walk up to booths and ask questions that you can find the answers to online. “You don’t want to ask them what they’re looking for; you should already know. Talk about the skills that you have and the projects that you’ve worked on that show that you’re a good fit for their company,” Adam said.

Watch How to Crush It at GDC on our Facebook. 

UAT Game Programming Professor Mark Feldman is also a big proponent of IRL (in real life) events and conferences. Mark got his last job at Qualcomm by connecting with a tech recruiter at Siggraph, an annual computer graphics conference. He also attended Casual Connect Europe last summer. He traveled all the way across the pond to connect with Arizona-based TBN Studios Founder Jake Simpson, who presented on how they worked with Unity VR to create tools for Ready Player One.

The International Game Developers Association has a lot of helpful resources with 150 chapters worldwide. The Phoenix IGDA chapter is very active IRL and on Discord. They get together once a month to network and playtest. For more info on IGDA, reach out to Adam.

While a lot of truth exists in the saying, “It’s not what you know, but who you know,” you still need a lot of talent, drive and dedication to make it in the gaming industry. A polished portfolio is the most important piece of the game dev job search pie. “My biggest mistake was not having a good enough art portfolio at graduation,” admitted Blake Bjerke, a University of Advancing Technology alumnus and environment artist at Cyan, Inc, the makers of Myst. It took Blake awhile to find his artist niche in environment art. “It’s important to find your focus and really start to practice and work it up into a great portfolio before you graduate," Blake said.

Some of Blake's work on the world Maray for the project Obduction. 

If you do 2D mobile art, then own it. If you want to be a character artist, then do not clutter your portfolio with level design or environment art pieces. Professor Feldman also recommends matching the game genres and styles in your portfolio to the style of the studio where you are applying. Just like you tailor your resume for specific roles, you can tailor your portfolio for specific studios.

Most hiring managers want to see at least four or five game-ready assets in a junior game developer’s portfolio. Include side projects to showcase your passion and commitment to your craft. Make sure you also explain how you did what you did. Help hiring managers understand your creative process and design thinking skills.

If you want to be a game developer, then you should make video games. “It’s one thing to create a piece of art or a level in a vacuum, but it’s something else entirely to actually develop it for a game,” Blake said. That’s why he encourages students at all levels to constantly contribute to projects.” Projects teach you about the constraints you’ll face, performance concerns, production pipelines, how art affects level design and more,” Blake said.

Not all game dev career paths are linear. “Being flexible is important,” Blake said. For example, UAT alumna Holly Sheppard started her career as a 3D artist making simulations and models at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. After working at an Arizona-based indie studio for a few years, she accepted at job at Scientific Games, where she works on slot machine games.

UAT alumnus Garrett Reuscher works as an educational application developer at Western University of Health Sciences, where he uses his skills in augmented reality and virtual reality to make training apps for medical students. UAT alumnus Charles Cozart started his career as a quality analyst at E-Line Media, where he moved into a gameplay engineer role after seven months! And UAT Game Art & Animation student Shelby Epley just accepted a job as a marketing assistant at the super cool Arizona startup SURF in the entertainment and advertising space.

Game developers have tons of transferable skills in UX design, technical project management, graphic design, animation and more!

Are you up for the game dev career challenge? Check out our Game Programming bachelor's degree today!

When Holly Sheppard graduated from the University of Advancing Technology with a degree in multimedia and digital animation, she immediately started working as a 3D artist—in a lab. She used her skills in Unreal Engine to create simulations and models of restricted areas of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Phoenix Chorale

After spending a year working in the Laboratory, perfecting her portfolio and applying to jobs across the country, she returned to Arizona to work as an environment artist at Rainbow Studios (formerly THQ), where she worked on a variety of games for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. When the studio closed, she didn’t want to leave the people and patios in Arizona, so she spent some time taking on small freelance gigs and pursuing her other passion: classical singing. She still sings with the Grammy-award-winning Phoenix Chorale, the Phoenix Opera and the Arizona Opera Chorus!

Just when Holly resolved to start applying for out-of-state game art jobs, she got a call from a slot machine company in Scottsdale. She didn’t know anything about slot machines but was excited by the chance to stay in Arizona and take on a new professional challenge. “I was also excited to find out that the development is very similar to the game development I was used to,” she said. And she gets to work on a lot of cool projects such as Kooza and Amaluna, two Cirque Du Soleil slot machine games. She even got to meet Billy Gibbons when she worked on a ZZ-Top slot machine.

Scientific Games

Holly’s current role at Scientific Games is "somewhere in between technical artist and graphic artist." She spends a lot of her time in After Effects and Photoshop doing motion graphic work. She also dabbles in 3D modeling, animation, concept work and graphic design. She collaborates with the Unity engineers on a daily basis to make sure all of the artwork gets implemented and functions properly.

Like many game developers, Holly had a tough time with her job search. “But I felt like I had a leg up when sending applications to studios because of my experience at UAT,” she said. During her time at UAT, Holly learned how fast tech moves. “New techniques and tools come out regularly, so being able to adapt quickly is important. But the fundamentals of art, color theory and composition stay the same.” she said. Her time at UAT taught her the value of both.

Holly capitalized on every opportunity to learn and improve while she was a UAT student, attending tech forums with industry professionals, completing internships, working on projects and participating in portfolio reviews. “You can build up a lot of experience that will help you get your foot in the door, but try to go beyond the basic requirements of classwork,” she said. “And always check to see how your portfolio looks on other computers!” she added.

Want to become an environment artist like Holly? Check out our Game Art & Animation degree program today!

For the first 15 years of Lynn DiGiacomo’s illustrious career in the gaming industry, she was the lone woman on the dev team. Then in 1995, she accepted a job at Sony Imagesoft, where she met Holliday Horton, the art director for the leading franchise title NFL GameDay. “Holliday paved the way with pipelines and processes for nearly all of the professional franchise titles that Sony produced at the time.” Working with Holliday spurred a streak of inspiration and innovation in Lynn. Now, she is surrounded by inspiring female game developers at the University of Advancing Technology, where she teaches game art and animation.

 Lynn (center) and other UAT faculty. Art by UAT alumna Ashley Casarrubias.

Lynn worked on several other franchise titles and a few original IP titles for extreme games during her tenure at Sony. “During this time, Holliday was a consistent presence and leader in innovation,” Lynn said. Holliday’s support and mentorship helped Lynn climb the ranks to become a key innovator in Sony’s pipelines and processes too. Then, with Sony’s support, Holliday launched RedZone Games, but Lynn and Holliday remained friends.

After 7 years at Sony, Lynn moved back to Phoenix to join Arizona’s leading game dev studio Rainbow Studios (formerly THQ), where she did a little bit of everything. She worked on exciting titles such as Untamed and Reflex and used her skills in animation, modeling, rigging, concept art, pipeline optimization, tools integration and project management.

Rainbow Studios

Lynn never forgot Holliday’s role in her professional and career development, which inspired her to start teaching. “Now we both enjoy opportunities to give back to the community through instruction and mentoring,” she said.

The 2018 viral article about the toxic culture of sexism at Riot Games sparked candid conversations online and on campus at UAT. Throughout Lynn’s 40-year career, she has heard many stories of injustice. She believes the key to professional success is how one responds to these circumstances. Lynn recommends “having a voice for positive change and ethics when needed, speaking to the circumstances with integrity and positive influence in a professional manner,” she said. Lynn recognizes that speaking up doesn’t always lead to change. “If you speak up and are not satisfied with the outcome, then you can always look at other options,” she said.

Lynn encourages female developers to embrace the power of being a woman in a male-dominated industry. “Do not lose who you are in the chaos of competing. Know that each woman has a unique perspective,” she said. Femininity is only part of the equitation, but Lynn views it as an underestimated advantage because a lot of people in the industry do not understand it fully. “The best career advice I can give female developers is to just be you and enjoy your journey,” she said.

Want to learn how to make video games with Lynn? Check out our Game Art & Animation degree program today!

Last weekend, the Global Game Jam (GGJ) took place around the world with UAT listed as the home base for Arizona. UAT students, alumni and local game developers attended the Phoenix Global Game Jam revving out 48-hours of game development and judges said they were impressed!

The theme for the 2018 Global Game Jam was “Transmission,” sparking lots of ideas of how to create a game around this.

From UAT’s Game Jam location, 29 games were submitted to the website with 17 playable games on display for judging on Sunday evening in the UAT Commons.

Global Game Jam at University of Advancing Technology – Monster Vault Entertainment

“We saw completed games developed for PC, 2D, 3D, mobile, and VR including Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. The variety was inspiring and great to see,” said judge and Program Champion Derric Clark.

You can check out the submitted games here.

Best Overall:
GigaBlast (VR for HTC Vive)

Best Theme:
Spooky Business

Best Art:
Weaponized Walkie Talkies

Honorable Mentions: (strong in the voting discussion)
Carrier Pigeon
Choreo-Mania
Hell’s Kitchen
Huntia
Malware
O2 Critical

Professor Clark said, “An amazing amount of content was produced in just 48 hours, seeing months of work completed over a weekend is extremely impressive. These were really great submissions, with many, many completed games. It was difficult to narrow the field down for the awards.”

“From a content standpoint, this was one of the best Arizona Game Jams thus far, amazing work completed and shown to judges,” Clark said.

A lot of different perspectives were taken on the theme, it was great to see the creativity kick in to produce a diverse set of games, both in content and play style.

Last weekend, the Global Game Jam (GGJ) took place around the world with UAT listed as the home base for Arizona. UAT students, alumni and local game developers attended the Phoenix Global Game Jam revving out 48-hours of game development and judges said they were impressed!

The theme for the 2018 Global Game Jam was "Transmission," sparking lots of ideas of how to create a game around this.

From UAT's Game Jam location, 29 games were submitted to the website with 17 playable games on display for judging on Sunday evening in the UAT Commons.

Global Game Jam at University of Advancing Technology - Monster Vault Entertainment

"We saw completed games developed for PC, 2D, 3D, mobile, and VR including Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. The variety was inspiring and great to see," said judge and Program Champion Derric Clark.

You can check out the submitted games here.

Best Overall:
GigaBlast (VR for HTC Vive)

Best Theme:
Spooky Business

Best Art:
Weaponized Walkie Talkies

Honorable Mentions: (strong in the voting discussion)
Carrier Pigeon
Choreo-Mania
Hell’s Kitchen
Huntia
Malware
O2 Critical

Professor Clark said, "An amazing amount of content was produced in just 48 hours, seeing months of work completed over a weekend is extremely impressive. These were really great submissions, with many, many completed games. It was difficult to narrow the field down for the awards."

Developing for Virtual Reality at the Global Game Jam

"From a content standpoint, this was one of the best Arizona Game Jams thus far, amazing work completed and shown to judges," Clark said.

A lot of different perspectives were taken on the theme, it was great to see the creativity kick in to produce a diverse set of games, both in content and play style.

The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the world's largest game jam event taking place around the world at physical locations. Join the Phoenix Global Game Jam for 48-hours of game development at UAT's tech-infused campus.

Need a team? Don't stress. There will be dev teams in need of designers, programmers and artists!

Whiskered Away indie game at Global Game Jam

Join in the fun and excitement of the Phoenix Global Game Jam, kicking off Friday, Jan. 26 at 5 p.m. running until time is called on Sunday, Jan. 28, at 5:30 p.m.

Contact: Adam Moore | amoore@uat.edu

Register on Eventbrite and take a look at UAT's Global Game Jam page.

Use hashtag #GGJ18 to join in the worldwide conversation about the event!

Blog post written by Game Art & Animation (GAA) student Olivia LeMaster

During the GAA 220 class, I was required to create a cohesive asset that illustrated my accomplishments in either 3DS Max or Maya software. I chose to work in 3DS Max, because it is free for students to work with for up to 3 years, with proof of active student email. Here is the link if you are interested in trying out 3DS Max: https://www.autodesk.com/education/free-software/3ds-max

As a Game Art and Animation major, this kind of knowledge is key in the world of video games. In every game created, there are a multitude of people working on the environment and the characters in which you see in order to make it an interactive environment. Even something as simple as what I created took hours of time and practice and mistakes before I felt like it was something to feel proud of. It’s not a small feat, and that’s something that we all forget as we enjoy playing our favorite video game. The amount of time and effort that the animators and artists put into that game should not be forgotten because without them, there would be no visual game to see.

We cannot forget the roots of animation. Without the basic drawings and understanding of anatomy, we would never have reached the heights we are today in animation. The basics are important, and even when using software such as 3DS Max, you have to understand the concept of what shapes are, and how you can manipulate them into something more, in order to create the beautiful scenes we see today.

If you’re interested in reading from a professional animator, I am a fan of animator Scott T. Peterson, as he talks about his life as an animator, and his story of coming into the animating world. I find this one useful and motivational, because it brings together the two worlds of animating, and he relates to people who cannot afford an education in Game Art and Animation, but don’t want to let go of their dreams.

It makes me proud to know that we all work together and admire our work. We realize the time and effort it takes, and we can still sit back, relax, and immerse ourselves into the games. In the end, that’s what every animator wants. For people to enjoy the games and the art they put into it.

To follow in Olivia's footsteps, take a look at the Game Art & Animation degree offered at UAT.

On October 10, Professor Hue Henry will be speaking to students at Western Maricopa Education Center (West- MEC) about game programming and getting them excited about possible careers as game programmers. Some of the topics Professor Henry will discuss include how the tools and techniques used in a traditional, web-programming environment are also useful for those interested in pursuing a career in Video Games.

Professor Henry said, "It is always exciting to get the chance to speak with the next generation of developers and innovators and help them to understand the unique opportunities that game programming can provide."

West-MEC is a JTED, Joint Technical Education District that services 13 West Valley school districts, 46 high schools. It is CTE, Career Technical Education. This is their third year after having initiated a Coding Program.

The program is 2 years, four semesters, with 250 clock hours per semester. It is very immersive, and is focused on Web.

Professor Hue Henry Guest Lecturing on Game Programming at West-MEC

Last year West-MEC placed 20% of their graduates immediately in Web programming, the rest went on to college. Many have expressed an interest in going on to Computer Science, wanting to specialize in Web or otherwise. Very much including the possibility of Game Programming App Programming, and Enterprise Programming.

The 2017 Founder's Game Jam took place at UAT the weekend of Sept. 22- 24 spreading a spark of game development inspiration around campus.

This year's theme was plants. Students had 48-hours, beginning on Friday afternoon, and ending on Sunday evening, to break into teams, come up with an idea, assign jobs and get to work. Because the fall semester had just began, it was exciting to see many new faces creating games together in the commons over the weekend.

"I was pleasantly surprised by the large number of first time game jammers and first semester students that decided to give their first game jam a shot. Many of the veteran game jammers partnered with the newer students and mentored them," said Adam Moore, UAT Game Design alumni and IGDA Phoenix advocate for UAT.

There were 9 games created including Duke of Daisy, Up Rooted, Heart of Shambala, Farn, Bovine Savior, Vegano vs. Nature, Plot Twist and Boogie Beetle and the Bionic Tree. You can view the current submissions here.

Duke of Daisy - Game Jam winner at UAT

Here are the game jam winners:

· Duke of Daisy – won best game overall.
· Up Rooted – won best use of theme
· Heart of Shambala – won best art
· Farn – won the café prize

Congratulations to all the winners and good work to all game jam participants!

It's wonderful when alumni return to UAT with good news! Evan Tappero who graduated last year with a degree in Game Design, gave us the scoop on the cool new place that he's working!

See our Q & A with Evan below:

Q: What is your current position and at which company?
A: My current position is assistant content manager at Crowdstar, which was recently acquired by Glu Mobile.

UAT Game Design Alumni Evan Tappero

Q: What does an assistant content manager actually do?
A: The position is on Crowdstar's Design Home team, so I deal with the curation of game content for the mobile game "Design Home". I am responsible for the categorization of incoming game content, as well as updated existing content, documenting new products that can be implemented into the game, as well as sending/tracking batches of new content to our art vendors to be made into 3d models.

Q: Is your career in the industry from the major?
A: My major was Game Design. This is the first position I have held that applies directly to my degree. Majoring in Game Design was a huge bonus that prepared me for the game industry. I was accustomed to working on teams at UAT and with those skills I was able to speak on a variety of different key points in game development and impress potential employers. Due to my background and degree, Crowdstar offered me a better position than I had originally applied for, allowing me to bypass their temp to hire and move directly into a full time staff member.

Q: How did your major prepare you for an industry career? How did you get the job?
A: Although I know multiple different people within my area (San Francisco Bay Area, CA) that work in the gaming industry, I was not able to successfully acquire a job through connections with them. My application to Crowdstar was a shot in the dark, I didn't know anyone or have any connections there, so I was very surprised when I was contacting by their recruiter and started the interview process. I received positive feedback from my phone interview and my in-person interview, so much so that Crowdstar offered me a position the following day after the face-to-face meeting. Overall it was a quick process, I meshed well with each interviewer, and I am very happy to be a part of the Design Home team with Crowdstar.

Q: What are your tips for students who want to break into the industry?
A: For students looking to make their start in the industry, I would say to never give up. Finding work can take time, some of you may find jobs immediately while for others it may take years. Apply to anything and everything that you may be even remotely qualify for, even if it isn't exactly your dream job. Employer's in today's market are looking for work experience and landing that first job in your field will be a huge step in the right direction.

Q: What do you miss about UAT?
A: My time at UAT was enjoyable, however, I never cared for the traditional classroom environments, but the structure of UAT's online program allowed me to flourish. I do miss some of the more involved classes where I was able to do creative level design in Unity or coming up with design concepts in a creative writing class.

To see more about the company Evan works for, visit Crowdstar's website. Check out their two current games: Covet Fashion and Design Home.

Crowdstar's Covet Fashion and Design Home

The summer semester is winding down, but many UAT Game Studios development teams are still hard at work trying to complete as much work on their games as possible before the Greenlight Celebration at the Game On Expo.

Each semester, student game developers pitch a game concept to UAT Game Studios Professors hoping to be greenlit into production for the semester. At the end of the term, each team lead presents their game build, hands out team awards and demos the game for the public.

During this summer session, six games were created and developed over 15 weeks.

The games made over summer semester are: Reign & Rebellion (3rd person, multiplayer, action game with a pair of industry veterans as the product owners), Operation: Red Rhino (1st person, multiplayer shooter that focuses on a node-based map selection system), Call Center Simulator (a VR shooter that has paired with alumni-founded Monster Vault Entertainment), Morpheus (a 3rd-person puzzle/ adventure game), World of Martz (a 3rd-person multiplayer fighting game built in Unreal), and KalqueLord.

KalqueLord is a game that was developed for an external client, which serves an impressive example for their resumes.

"KalqueLord is an engine that turns students, teachers and parents into heroes."

According to team lead Donald Schepis, KalqueLord is an edu-tainment application designed to empower students to engage with learning content at their own pace and give teachers the tools to easily personalize instruction. By taking the feedback loop found in role-playing games and merging it with a math curriculum, KalqueLord gives students a visualization for the progress they make and put the drive to excel in their hands.

Students earn points to purchase items and equipment to power up their characters, allowing them to face greater challenges and push themselves beyond their limits. With a ground-level teacher integration, almost every element of KaluqueLord can be easily customized for a student by an instructor, from the amount and type of content assigned to students, the focus of their day-to-day practice, to even the rewards they earn for both individual and group progress. KalqueLord will provide students with the opportunity to exceed the normal pace of a classroom while allowing teachers to provide the individualized support every child needs.

To get valuable feedback, the developers have invited a group of children from the Sunshine Acres Children's Home to UAT on Aug. 11, to playtest UAT Game Studios games. This is the fourth time this group of kids have acted as official playtesters. They enjoy the ability to try out new games and ask questions or provide feedback directly to the developers.

Check out more information on the client's game KalqueLord on their website.

After a long journey, UAT Game Design alumni Godric Johnson is excited to announce that a game demo that he's been working on for some time called Cyberpunk Casanova is available for download!

Cyberpunk Casanova is a dystopian visual novel that incorporates the goal of creating a visual novel with a western approach. To achieve this and maintain balance with what fans like about the genre, the team decided to contrast the "grimdark" setting with bright and vibrant artwork. The game devs also made a decision to raise the danger level. Choices you make in game will not only influence how a person feels about you, but can also shape future “life or death” scenarios and major events for both you and the NPCs.

Pimpin Scott

Download the Cyberpunk Casanova demo on Jetstreame and get your game on!

Godric Johnson has worked as the Producer and Creative Director for Jetstreame for the last four years. Prior to this experience, Godric worked his way through the industry by teaching game design, working as a graphic designer, artist/animator and game designer for various companies.

Congrats on your game demo release, Godric! We are very excited to see what's next for Jetstreame.

Congratulations to UAT Game Studios development team who took first place in the Phoenix Global Game Jam held at UAT on January 20-22.

A week from now, the devs will leave for GDC Play in San Fransisco, California to show off their new game, "Whiskered Away," as the Game Jam's grand prize sponsored by Clique API.

"Whiskered Away" takes place on a beach with cute, colorful cats who are collecting shiny coins that belong to Poseidon. The cats must avoid Poseidon's wrath as he throws waves at the cats trying to pull them out to sea. If the cats are successful in collecting coins, Poseidon will be teased by some bratty laughing dolphins.

Whiskered Away game demo at Phoenix Global Game Jam with Professor Ben Reichert

Game designer Kenny Ryan said, "The game jam was a great experience for all of us collaborating with each of our different disciplines. Some of us had worked together before, but never this close and it was such a blast! We are extremely excited that the whole team will be attending and we plan to make the most of our GDC trip."

Watch the trailer for Whiskered Away!