CSC News

4th Annual Game Development Showcase Set for April 24th

The fourth annual NCSU Game Development Showcase will be held Friday, April 24 at 7:30 pm in Engineering Building 2 on NC State's Centennial Campus. 

The annual event highlights the games built by teams of Computer Science and Industrial Design undergraduates in their joint courses on the game development process.  Two large teams of students will give presentations describing the design and development of their games, from the initial concept phase, through the definition of technical and artistic milestones to the effort involved to create a finished product.  After their presentations, students will host audience members at a reception where the courses' games will be available for play and the students will answer questions about their work.
        
Food and drinks will be served at the reception.  The event is free and open to the public.  All game content is appropriate for children. All ages are welcome to attend.  Faculty at the reception will also be able to answer questions from students and parents interested in NCSU's courses and programs focusing on game creation.           

Important Details

Date: April 24, 2009

Time:  7:30PM to 10:00PM

Location:  Engineering Building 2, Room 1025

Reception to follow in EB2 Progress Energy Conference Room (Room 3002)

About the Games

Games for CSC482/ID400 are built using Epic Games' Unreal 3 technology, perhaps the most-used, advanced commercial game engine on the market today.  Computer Science students work to develop software that drives the dynamics of each game while Industrial Design students build the 2D and 3D art, object and character models and animations that compose the game's content.  Both disciplines contribute to the design of the gameplay and overall feel of the game.

Each year, the class instructors provide a small set of initial constraints for the teams as they work to form their game concepts.  This year, one team was required to build a game that was a) a serious game and b) based on the current excavation of the Queen Anne's Revenge, the flagship of the dread pirate Blackbeard.  Keeping with a theme relating to pirates, the other team was required to build a) a serious game that involved pirates and b) a game that taught elements of the North Carolina high school Physics curriculum relating to optics and the properties of light.  The two games produced by the teams are:

Blackbeard's Escape: The Recovery of the Queen Anne's Revenge

Prepare to experience the action and mystery of piracy on the high seas! Explore the science of artifact recovery and restoration, and then take part in pitched battles alongside Blackbeard, the world's most notorious pirate. Master your scuba equipment and techniques, reveal hidden historical treasures, and trade splintering cannon fire in a series of flashbacks. Are you ready for the adventure of a lifetime?

Spectral Assault

Avast, lasers on the deck! Spectral Assault puts you in the shoes of the mild-mannered Ray, as he's thrust from being a simple mechanic aboard the space freighter Adventure to defending himself against the infamous Blackstache and his savage crew of space pirates. Players will have to put their minds (and high school physics lessons) to work to help Ray solve a variety of light-based puzzles and make it through the pirate ship. Follow Ray and ALiCE (the sometimes-cheeky Automated Learning Intelligent Computing Engine installed in Ray's gear) on their quest through waves of pirates and puzzles to unlock the way to a face-off with Blackstache himself.

Directions and Parking

Engineering Building 2 (or EB2) is located on NCSU's Centennial Campus [directions & map]. The showcase will be held on the ground floor of EB2's west wing, in room 1025.

Parking on Centennial Campus after hours is free.  We recommend that you park either on Oval Drive or the Partners Way Parking Deck.

Handicapped Access

From the bus stop on Varsity Drive and Partners Way or from the parking deck on Partners Way, you can enter EB2 right from the point where Varsity Drive ends on Partners Way: this is one level below the main level.  Go down a long hall to the first elevator: the lecture hall where the presentations will be (EB2 1025) is located on the first floor to the right after exiting the elevator.

About our sponsors

Epic Games, Inc., based in Cary, NC and established in 1991, develops cutting-edge games and cross-platform game engine technology. The company has created multiple million-selling, award-winning titles in its "Unreal" series, most recently shipping "Unreal Tournament 3" for PC, PLAYSTATION(r)3 and Xbox 360(r). Epic's breakthrough game, "Gears of War," sold 5 million copies and won over 30 Game of the Year awards. "Gears of War 2" was released on Nov. 7, 2008, and sold over 2 million units in its first weekend at retail. Epic's Unreal Engine 3 is the three-time consecutive winner of Game Developer magazine's Best Engine Front Line Award and this year's Hall of Fame inductee. Additional information about Epic can be obtained through the Epic Games Web site at www.epicgames.com.

Spark Plug Games is a leading independent games developer, currently licensed for Sony PlayStationR3, Nintendo WiiT, Nintendo DST, Microsoft Xbox 360R and Apple iPhoneT platforms.  Our studio culture lives by the slogan "We ignite fun!". It expresses our burning corporate desire to create casual products with high quality, high value, and high entertainment, and our personal desires to love what we do for a living.  Our team of industry veterans shares the same passion to create innovative and accessible games.  We are equally adept at working with existing licenses and creating innovative and original new intellectual properties.

For more information:

Dr. R. Michael Young, Associate Professor and instructor, Computer Science 481 Advanced Game Development Projects (link)

Dr. Timothy Buie, Assistant Professor and Instructor, Industrial Design 400, 3D Game Development Studio (link)

Digital Games Research Center (link)