So I just got back to Salt Lake City from a week+ stay in the Montreal/Boston area and I'm bringing back the first trophy for the EAE program in the form of a Ubisoft award for Best Creativity and Best Use of Theme for the Game Lab competition. Look at it in all of its glory! So how did it go at the award ceremony? I'll tell you..Read ON!
So Roger and I were the only team members from the University of Utah at the event and that made me kind of sad because I wish other members on Reveal had the same experience that I had at the award ceremony. First of all, when we got there, they literally hauled our a red carpet for all of us. After a few minutes, we all took our seats and the awards show began. Many of the top projects we all thought were amazing were nominated and took home awards. I'm not going to lie, I thought that our prototype was simply lost in the quality projects that were presented. For example, I thought we were going to be locked as a nominee for Best Presentation but alas, we did not make the cut. Right when I was about to get discouraged, the award for Best Creativity was announced - and we were the first nominees. I was ecstatic to be nominated..and then the award went to...Reveal. I couldn't believe it!
After we were announced as the winner, I made my way through the crowd with Roger to the stage to accept the award. Once I got there, I gave the best acceptance speech that I could. FIrst and foremost I thanked Ubisoft and the Academia team for inviting us to compete in the competition. Then I profusely thanked every member of my team for working so hard to get us to this point. It was all worth it! After my awkward acceptance, I walked back to my seat. On the way, a few of the judges stopped me and told me, "that's the award to win for this competition". Hearing that made all the hard work worth every second.
The main winner of the competition was announced after our award which was the team that made Shine - an exploration game similar to ours that involved shooting a beacon of light to explore an environment. The game looked amazing and they deserved the award. Since I saw their project, I thought this was the one I'd love to work on if I was picked as an intern.
Then the internships were announced...and I MADE THE CUT. I'm going to MONTREAL!
Yep, thats right. I'm going to be a game design intern at one of the biggest and best studios in the world - learning from some of the best.
