Hello Game Devs,
Lots of news to share and so much student work to talk about!
Upcoming UConn Events
The BFA Senior Exhibition entitled Limitless is here! Please celebrate our wonderful BFA students with a focus on game development. Opening reception on Friday, March 31, from 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. EDT (with a screening of films and animations starting at 6 p.m.).
The in-person exhibition is open from March 31 to April 28, 2023, in the Jorgensen Gallery at University of Connecticut’s Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts, with Regular gallery hours being Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.All events are free and open to the public. The title Limitless reflects the expansive hopes of the exhibiting artists. For these students, the future has no limits. To learn more about the exhibition, visit: http://dmd.uconn.edu/bfashow
2023 BFA Students
Matt Ciccone (Wallingford, Connecticut.), Alta’s Odyssey, video game https://sparrowsoft.site
Dean Corelli (Bedford, N.Y.), Legend of Silva, video game https://bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu/2023/work-single.php?name=corelli
Josh Estevez (Bronx, N.Y.), The 9 Chambers: Tower of Doom, video game https://bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu/2023/work-single.php?name=estevez
Walter Luciano (Stratford, Connecticut.), Don’t Break Your Controller, video game https://walterluciano9.wixsite.com/mysite/project
Madison Salvatore (Alburtis, Pa.), The Bacchus is Dead!, video game https://madisonsalvatore18.wixsite.com/thebacchusisdead
Nandita Venkat (Glastonbury, Connecticut.), Tender Memory, video game https://nanditavenkat.wixsite.com/nanditavenkat/contact
The MFA Show is also here! Come to the Benton Museum April 1st. Check out Here There Be Bears by Lexy Vecchio and team, https://benton.uconn.edu/2023-mfa-thesis-exhibition/
The show opens April 1st and the MFA reception at the Benton Museum of Art is Thursday, Apr 20th, 4 pm-6:30pm
Lexy Vecchio : Here There Be Bears
Artist Statement:
My work focuses equally on captivating narrative and embodied experience. My personal experiences with PTSD supplement extensive psychological research into traumatic response, symptoms, and treatments through both peer reviewed research and critical review of existing media about trauma. Using my diverse artistic background which includes experience in theater, film, and writing, my work humanizes the unfathomable world of trauma, both physical and mental, through interactive & time based media. Starting out with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a subject both personal and misunderstood, my work validates these experiences of mental illness through the physicality of the game avatar. Video games, often written off as a mindless hobby, can be participatory works of art, an experience that sticks with the players long after they grasp the controller. Especially in rising generations, video games have proven to be just as influential a medium as film, books and studio art.
Artist Biography:
Lexy is an interactive media artist & MFA Candidate at the University of Connecticut. After receiving her B.A. in Film from Muhlenberg College in 2015, Lexy spent several years working in theater in New York before returning to New England to focus on game design. She currently works as a Graduate Instructor in the Digital Media & Design department.
Lexy debuted her first project in 2016, Curbside Waltz, a film dealing with the effect of parental substance abuse on children. Since then, Lexy’s work has reflected a growing emphasis on mental health issues; in particular, how trauma can affect both body and mind. Her current research is focused on video games as embodied experiences, through the lens of Post Traumatic Stress. This pitch won first place in the Innovation Quest Pitch contest in spring of 2022, beating out over 80 other teams in multidisciplinary fields of STEAM.
DMD 2542: Intro to Scripting Students present their final sidescrolling projects on Friday, May 5th at 10 AM in the Homer Babbidge Library room 1101 from 10:30 AM -12:30 PM. Please come and play some games, give each other some feedback, and maybe find a game dev partner for a summer project?
DMD 2550: Game Production students present their final pitches for a game based on Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki in the Homer Babbidge Library room 1101 from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM. Please watch our pitch presentations, which will be recorded and sent to the author as part of the http://UConnReads.uconn.edu initiative sponsored by the Provost’s office.
Want to take DMD 2500 Intro to Game Design with me this summer? Sign up here!
From Professor Sophie Shao in the Music Department: We are thrilled to kick off Asian Pacific American Month at UConn with a performance of Shih-Hui Chen’s Our Son Is Not Coming Home To Dinner, a gorgeous new multimedia cello and chamber orchestra work with staging by Doug Fitch, video art by Tommy Nguyen, and lighting by Nicholas Houfek. Dr. Janet Song Kim, our dynamic new wind ensemble director will conduct an ensemble of our students with cello Professor Sophie Shao. Also on the program will be video game music arranged and performed by our students Max Hurtubise and Vivian Hudson, and the beautiful Song of Songs for cello and electronics by Karen Tanaka performed by student Luigi Polcari.
Saturday, April 1 at 8pm with a pre-concert talk at 7:15pm in von der Mehden Recital Hall.
More information can be found here:
External Competitions
From RPI: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute GameFest in Troy, New York, is open to submissions. As a former Vicarious Visions employee and RPI grad myself, I guarantee you that the developers in the region will be there scouting talent. Blizzard, 1st Playable Productions, and Venan Entertainment are highly reputable companies, and I highly recommend that you attend; maybe you’ll end up working on Diablo IV! I have an article about the game job market and its growth you can check out. Email kenneth.thompson@uconn.edu if you intend to apply and use this link RPI’s Center of Excellence in Digital Game Development to let you know that we’ve officially opened the submission portal for GameFest 2023’s Student Showcase and Competition, which will take place on Saturday, April 29 from 12-8pm at the Tech Valley Center of Gravity in Troy, NY. The deadline for submissions is currently Friday, March 31 at 11:59pm — but we anticipate extending it by roughly a week (to April 7 at 11:59pm).
Past Events and Celebrations
Thank you again to Alumn Amanda Brickner for her Motion Capture seminar. We wish her luck on the undisclosed project at Rockstar Games. It was wonderful seeing how students have launched their careers through the DMD Motion Capture system. Want to learn how to use the Mocap System? Training seminars for DMD students are ongoing, email maria.shurupova@uconn.edu for more information.
Danial Ezzati, Maria Shurupova, and Lexy Vecchio showed their project at Penny Arcade East Made in MA Party! There were around 1,000 signups for the event and we had a blast! We expect to continue to go every year and are currently looking into a booth at PAXEast in future years. Thank you Danial, Maria, and Lexy, for the hard work.
Please also join me in congratulating Danial Ezzati, who has taken a summer internship with Volvo in their AR/VR experimental division. Truly the cutting edge of Human-Computer Interaction. Have fun!
UConn Digital Media & Design Student Game Development Job openings
Student Researcher – Game Developer: game developer needed to modify the existing game for Dr. Robert Astur. The original game had players smash vapes for HTC Vive. You’ll need some programming experience and unity. Headset provided. Contact Robert.astur@uconn.edu and cc Kenneth.Thompson@uconn.edu https://psychology.uconn.edu/person/robert-astur/
Student Researcher – Game Developer: Dr. Jasna Jankovic in Materials Science and Engineering is looking to pay a student game developer for one year starting in the summer. She wants applicants to bring concepts in renewable energy, smart grid technologies, and solar energy into a Virtual Reality environment. The project is being developed by BFA student Nandita Venkat and will be presented on April 19th at a big Steam Tree event. This project is part of an NSF-funded grant that includes the UConn STEAM Tree project and uses the VR Standard Template. VR Headset provided. Please email jasna.jankovic@uconn.edu and CC kenneth.thompson@uconn.edu to apply. https://steam-tree.initiative.uconn.edu/
More about the event from Dr. Jankovic: We are excited to invite you all to our official STEAM Tree reveal and ribbon cutting by UConn’s president Radenka Maric (she will be accompanied by the Board of Trustees) on April 19, around 1 pm, during the Spring Fling event (we cannot say the exact time, as Radenka will come after the Board of Trustees meeting, so the event will be sometimes between 1 pm and 2 pm).
The reveal will be happening on the big green field between Castleman (School of Engineering building), Student Union Building and Benton Museum (see below, red star). In case of heavy rain, we will have to move the event to another day (we will let you know).
Please come and share this important moment with the team! There will be cameras and news crews, so come ready to give some interviews ;-).
Student Researcher- 2D Art and Animation: I am looking for an undergraduate 2D Art student to create logos/marketing material, in-game art, rig 2D characters, and create a 2-minute “shadow puppet” cutscene for the multicultural Aleppo project. Speedy photoshop/animation skills preferred; Unity Sprite Rigger and animation system can be learned on the job. 18$/h starts summer for 1 year. Contact kenneth.thompson@uconn.edu with a portfolio.
All positions evaluate students on a rolling basis. Please attach your resume, personal statement, pertinent classes, and/or portfolio as needed. These are student positions in research. On-the-job learning is expected; we encourage you to apply and grow through doing.
Looking to connect with others about Connecticut game development?
Show up to some of our events and chat with us on discord.
Links to the Game Development Club, UConn Gaming Club, GameDevCT, and the Quinnipiac Game Development Club discords.
Check out my Networking in New England for more regional communities and job interviewing tips article.
Making Games in Connecticut & Networking
Have news? Internships? Summer Plans? We want to celebrate your success! Send me an email at kenneth.thompson@uconn.edu