Four new video games being developed by students of UCF’s Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy will be demonstrated Friday and participants can try their skills playing the games with titles such as “Warp Derby” and “Pitch Jumper.”
The games represent more than six months of work by four teams of about 15 students each. The free demonstrations will be at 2 p.m. at UCF’s Center for Emerging Media, 500 W. Livingston St., Orlando.
“I’m really excited to let everybody else play the game,” said AJ Walker, project lead of “Pitch Jumper,” in which the songs a player chooses from a personal library create a customized gaming experience. “I hope they like the characters and the art, and I hope that they think the music fits the game.”
The students have been busy putting finishing touches on the games before the unveiling.
“We’re running around like crazy ants trying to fix all kinds of little loose ends,” said Seth Buchanan, project lead on “Escherreal.” His team’s game is a perspective-bending puzzle game influenced by the mathematically inspired artwork of MC Escher.
The other games to be introduced are “Grapple,” in which players grapple over rooftops to protect a city, and “Warp Derby,” a vehicular combat game that features a portal gun and TV sportscaster style.
Faculty, staff and students from FIEA will be available to comment on the projects, and the event will be live-streamed at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/fiea.
FIEA offers a project-based education that prepares students for the film, new media and videogame industries. It is an accredited graduate program with faculty from Microsoft, EA, Take 2, Sony and Disney. In 2011, 2012 and 2013 it was named one of the top 5 graduate game-development programs in North America by the Princeton Review.
“We’re just excited to show what we’ve done,” said Arlen Eldridge, project lead of “Warp Derby. “We’re really proud of it and we just hope people appreciate it as much as we do.”