I almost could not believe it. The pitch went amazingly. Our demo looked fantastic. The Q&A section was enlightening and well-fielded. I felt like all of our hard work paid off. Then, the other teams presented and it seems we were not the only ones with good games on our hands. I'm not going to lie, I was very nervous coming out of the conference room where we all pitched. Each team had an original idea that would do fantastic with three more months of development. Want to hear how it all went down? Read on!
After our presentations, we were told to watch our e-mails later in the afternoon with a decision on which team will be going to Montreal in April. My team and I walked down to our cohort lab to relax a bit and play some Magic: The Gathering together. We deserved it. Just as I drew my seven cards to play a round, I got an email from our program director to come up to her office to discuss the results of the competition. I practically ran the full mile across campus to receive the news. I sat down in her office and she told me that we won. We're going to Montreal to represent the school and possibly win an internship at the famous Ubisoft studio. It felt amazing!
In addition to that wonderful announcement, they also had some suggestions for how our game and team should proceed from here on out. With the team only comprising of seven people, we have room for one more person to join our ranks in development. My team and I wanted to request an additional artist to help out with animation concepting, assets, etc. However, they felt that Isaac was doing an excellent job and what we needed on the team was an experienced producer type to balance out my shortcomings as a fledgling producer. Therefore, Troy Johnson from cohort 2 is joining the Ubisoft team to help out with production and some design duties. I could not be happier with the selection, he and I have taken a class together where we have had great conversations about game development.
Another caveat that we were given was regarding the subject matter of our game. It was too AAA and not "indie" enough. We have a rare opportunity that some AAA developers may never have which is to develop a refreshing, experimental experience for players. After hearing their concern about this, i agreed and the team and I will be brainstorming some alternate mechanics and aesthetics of our game tomorrow afternoon after our first official day of classes.
WOOT! Big things happening this semester and I could not be more excited!
-Andrew
We're IN! UBISOFT HERE WE COME!
