The end of this week marks the official end to my first semester as a master's student within the EAE program. What a crazy four months it has been! It is quite staggering to think of how much I have learned and accomplished at this school. Less than six months ago I had not one gaming project under my belt and at this moment I have four prototypes under my belt, AND I created my own class. I seriously couldn't be more proud enough of the work my teams and I have accomplished this semester.
Speaking of teams and prototypes, because this last prototype of the semester is not for a client but for our own devices, there is no final pitch for the game. Instead, we had a demo day of sorts for all three of the games that were developed in the last three and a half weeks. Most of my cohort had already seen Impulse at the Open House but we did manage to add the charge into the game at the last minute - a new movement type for our main character. It was nice to end the semester in this way, everyone experiencing each team's hard work. I am definitely lucky to be in the company of all these talented individuals. If this is the type of crowd that works in the game industry, then I am right at home.
Although the semester comes to a close, I have a few things to look forward to as I head home to Boston for my Christmas break with my girlfriend and family. First of all, I have managed to assemble a team to compete in a friendly competiton amongst my other classmates to see who gets to represent the University of Utah at the Ubisoft Game Lab competition in Montreal, Canada. I've managed to bring together a very strong team with two designers (including myself), four programmers and two artists (one who specializes in audio and environments and the other in characters). A pretty balanced team if I do say so myself. We already have a loose idea in our heads that we want to explore and we have until Jan. 7th (the day classes for the Spring semester begin) to create a demo. I'm excited to work on this in the next two weeks.
Well, I believe that is it for me for now. I hope everyone out there enjoys the holiday season like I will. I'll check back in from time to time to show progress on the Ubisoft Game Lab demo as well as any other projects that I am currently working on.
Happy Holidays!
Andrew
