ETC alum Asi Burak (06) and Michelle Byrd of Games for Change has a great article in the New York Times about their Half the Sky Movement: The Game
If the Half the Sky game takes off and the money is claimed quickly, the producers hope other sponsors will step in, said Michelle Byrd, co-president of Games for Change, a nonprofit that promotes the creation of so-called social impact games and is the game’s executive producer, along with Show of Force Productions.
Asi Burak, also co-president of Games for Change, said the hope is to draw two million to five million players, persuading 5 percent or more to donate. Players can play at no charge, but they will make faster progress through donations.
Those usage figures would put the game in the top rungs of social cause gaming.
To read the rest of the article, click here.
This weekend the Pittsburgh Post Gazette ran some stories on the ETC.
Click here to read a story about Drew, and his new role as Acting Director of the ETC.
Click here to read a story about the projects the students have done for Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center, or TARC and Firaxis Games.
The third story just gave a great overview of the program and some of the great things students are doing this semester.
At last week's D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit award ceremony announced the awarding winning games of 2012. Thatgamecompany's "Journey" was the big winner at the 16th annual D.I.C.E. Awards, capturing eight awards, including Game of the Year, Outstanding Innovation in Gaming, and Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction. ETC alum Chris Bell was a designer for "Journey"
"Borderlands 2" game credit includes ETC alumni Trey Davenport as a producer and 2nd year student Carey Davenport. The game was named Action Game of the Year.
Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering: "XCOM: Enemy Unknown"
Garth DeAngelis is listed as part of the additional level design and lead producer.
"Halo 4", which won Outstanding Achievement in Connectivity and Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering has Alyson Szymanski as part of the production team for developer 343 Industries.
And in a previous story, RayRay Shen was part of the team that made the Fighting Game of the Year: "PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale".
I know we have many more alumni that helped on the other great games, like Mass Effect 3 and Sim City Social, but I was using Moby Games for a list of credits on the games.
If anyone would like to be part of this story, please let is know!
In 2010 Jesse Schell's look at the future of games, had people talking about 'Gamification' and changed many people's perspective of how games could influence people's behaviors. It looks like the talk that Jesse gave at the 2013 DICE is also causing a buzz. In his talk, Jesse appeals to game designers to change people's lives in positive ways.
Here is what Gamasutra
gamesindustry interntational and
took from his talk.
Nice work Jesse!
ETC alumnus RayRay Shen (09) sent us email to let us know that the game she has been working on as a combat designer has just won a D.I.C.E. award from the best fighting game! Nice work, RayRay.
