2024 Student Handbook
Student handbook for the ETC class that started August 26 2024
BeatStep Cowboys wins at the Intel University Games Showcase
At last week’s Intel University Games Showcase(IUGS), held in conjunction with the annual Game Developers Game Conference (GDC), ETC student project team and their game, Beatstep Cowboys, won first place in Best Game Play and second place in visual quality.
Twelve of the world’s top university game design programs demonstrated their best student projects and competed for prizes from Intel. A panel of luminary judges interviewed the participants and decided the winners for gameplay, visual quality, and innovation. This year’s participants included, DigiPen Institute of Technology, Drexel University, University of Utah, Savannah College of Art and Design, Rochester Institutite of Technology, University of California – Santa Cruz, Southern Methodist University – Guildhall, University of Southern California, New York University, University of Central Florida and University of Wisconsin-Stout.
JD, King Kong and Amy with the awards from IUGS, photo credit Beatstep Cowboys on Facebook
The ETC student team members consisted of Minoong (JD) Ji – Creative Director and Programmer, Amy Stewart – Game Designer, and Xuelai (King Kong) Zhang – Artist. Both JD an Amy are alumni from the ETC class of 2016, while Xuelai will complete degree requirements at the end of the term. The game will look familiar to attendees of GDC 2016, for the team demoed at the ETC booth during the Expo.
JD and other GDC attendees play Beatstep Cowboys at the ETC booth during GDC16
The prototype of the Beatstep Cowboys was made during the Global Game Game 2015, The Beat, the Step, and the Cowboys by JD, Vivek Vidyasagaran(16) and Zhetao Wang(16). JD was able to turn the prototype of the game into a spring 2016 semester project after a successful project pitch with Amy and Xuelai as his team members and ETC faculty members Dave Culyba and Scott Stevens served as project instructors.
The Beatstep Cowboys game has already been Greentlit on Steam, with a released date of winter 2017. You can follow Beatstep Cowboys on their Facebook page.