Emerson student org. looks to make game in semester
by Alexander Sliwinski 
{ Feb 10th 2007 at 3:30PM }
Some ambitious students from Emerson College (not pictured) have created the Emerson College Game Developers Association, a group attempting to finish a game within a semester. The brainchild of Jeff Edwards and John Richardson, the group of 25 students, including animators, digital artists, programmers, Web designers and more monkeys at typewriters (writers) than the pair know what to do with, are energized to get the project started. Richardson says, "We had more writers show up than we anticipated. We're going to make more avenues for those people to independently learn about the craft as we move along." Richardson's got the slick industry lingo down already, that is one smooth way to say "downsize."The group has no budget and is not yet recognized by the overseers at the Student Government Association. The Visual and Media Arts Department did like the idea of the organization and gave them an Xbox 360. No word if they received a developer kit to go with the department's generous gift. The project plans to be incredibly small, but Edwards puts it best, "College is a great time to do that kind of [project], as many film students and writing students have learned, because you don't have to worry about the paychecks so much." For real though, 'cause, like, you know? The real world is, like, totally hard.
[Thanks William]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
AssemblyLineHuman @ Feb 10th 2007 3:46PM
Sounds interesting, but I kinda wonder what kind of game they have in mind. I've seen sites dedicated to making a game in a week, but most of the games that come out of those are simple concepts that are almost more of a toy than a game. If these people are trying to pull off a traditional "hardcore" game with a full-fledged story and whatnot, I wish them luck.
Andrew Fong @ Feb 10th 2007 3:46PM
Are they planning to do an XNA-based project with the 360? If so, they really wouldn't need a seperate dev kit.
mko @ Feb 10th 2007 3:51PM
cannot concentrate on article... breasts entirely distracting... sorry.
sheppy @ Feb 10th 2007 3:55PM
It's a grand goal and with 25 people on board, maybe they can make a DS game going from concept to gold in a single semester. Seems like a pipe dream and something they should be bragging about in the post mortem rather than the announcement.
MaX PL and the 360 r4pe Tr4iN @ Feb 10th 2007 4:21PM
you guys are reading the article?
i'm staring at the scandanavian blond beauty with that sweet smile.
Tyler @ Feb 10th 2007 4:20PM
@ mko
I feel your... pain? But yeah, I'm interested in seeing what they can pull off. Hopefully this may cause similar projects to spring up around other campuses.
Joe @ Feb 11th 2007 9:53AM
Jeff edwards is my roommate at emerson, hes a good man and i have full confidence in his extraordinary ability to pump out the most amazing piece of videogaming technology the earth has ever seen.
Xiath @ Feb 10th 2007 4:48PM
@MaX PL and the 360 r4pe Tr4iN
Sure, it's the smile that you're staring at and not some other part of the body.
Jeff Edwards @ Feb 10th 2007 4:47PM
Oh wow. I'm the Jeff Edwards of the story above, and I really didn't expect it to get picked up outside of the club's site and the linked-to article. This first game is more about learning the process and figuring out how to use the unusual resources of Emerson College, and is thus going to be pretty short and simple. There is no game development program here, so we're really on our own to figure this out. We're planning much more ambitious stuff for once we have a process to follow.
http://www.emersongamedev.org/
Maylon @ Feb 10th 2007 4:58PM
@6, I am definitely doing the same, man, that is sublime.
bob @ Feb 10th 2007 5:09PM
man i would tap that
Diskoboy @ Feb 10th 2007 5:36PM
*totally distracted by the hot blonde with killer rack*
bear attack @ Feb 10th 2007 5:40PM
That rack is next gen!
IHateFrasierCrane @ Feb 10th 2007 6:10PM
All I can say is I certainly hope the physics controlling the movement of her boobs is true to life and her nipples are bump mapped.
mko @ Feb 10th 2007 6:45PM
He He... here's a bigger pic
http://www.beercations.com/assets/images/hot_beer_girls.jpg
John Richardson @ Feb 10th 2007 6:59PM
Wow, I'm on Joystiq. Holy crap.
Anyway, like Jeff said, this is a very small project. It's a learning process more than a big production. The article sort of makes it seem impossibly ambitious -- we're not aiming for that. We're looking towards quality, creativity, and innovation in an all-but-dead genre, and I think most will agree once it's released.
JR
Tequila Mockingbird @ Feb 10th 2007 7:31PM
Hey John Richardson, get back on topic.
Looks as if God himself had a hand in that. Now, more than ever do I wish I was God.
/'\-/'\ @ Feb 10th 2007 7:33PM
WOW, I want her digits!!!
What a smile, nice eyes and what a rack!!!
What is this article about again?
%)
Arbuz Chokaro @ Feb 10th 2007 7:51PM
Next on news at nine- Gaming blog draws attention to boring articles with pictures of attractive women with cleavage. TUNE IN!
pete @ Feb 10th 2007 10:02PM
I know a number of colleges are doing things like this actually. At the University of Michigan, some of the higher level programming classes tend to group together with the art/digital art groups in the techy side of campus and work on projects via a campus funded group named wolverinesoft. -> http://www.wolverinesoft.org. On campus groups like SIGGRAPH tend to join in as well. They usually turn out a few decent/good games a year. Good stuff though, I learned a fair bit of game coding through on campus.
samfish @ Feb 10th 2007 10:03PM
Oh man,...look at those tits!
*fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap*
rio @ Feb 11th 2007 12:25AM
Maybe she'll come over and play w/ my Wii?
LaughingMan @ Feb 11th 2007 3:01AM
AAAH! I take my tinfoil helmet off one night and look what happens! Joystiq gets inside my head and post a screen shot from my dreams.
Blonde kind of looks like Julia Stiles, but better.
Galley @ Feb 11th 2007 8:38AM
Holy fraulein!
Grad Student @ Feb 11th 2007 11:45AM
Um... check out etc.cmu.edu
you're not the first ones to come up with this idea.
god luck, it's an admirable goal!
driven2sin @ Feb 11th 2007 11:57AM
is this a review of one of those Japanese sex simulators?? I hope so..
Jeff Edwards @ Feb 11th 2007 5:13PM
I know we're not the first. Like I said, I was shocked that, of all the schools with similar organizations, that we'd get picked up.
And to be paired with such a lovely sight. Indeed, a delightful surprise in many ways.
S @ Feb 11th 2007 5:29PM
No offense to you, Jeff Edwards, but what you and you're school is doing is not special. MANY schools do stuff like this and you're only getting attention because people in the media doesn't understand games and they hear that you guys are making a game and get all giddy.
I'm sorry, but the game you describe is not hard to create and certainly is not worthy of the media attention its receiving.
DJDoc @ Feb 11th 2007 10:14PM
Girl on the right is smokin'...
Don't really care about the rest of the stuff in the article... there need to be more schools having projects like a videogame in a semester though. Great idea.
atomvaz @ Feb 11th 2007 11:51PM
all I know is the blond in front is hot!!!!!
Mogul218 @ Feb 12th 2007 1:27AM
Are you guys using XNA? Hate to say it but getting a PS3 seems like you're just sitting around a semester playing and getting credits for it. I envy you, because I dropped out of college partly due to videogames but mostly drinking.
Mogul218 @ Feb 12th 2007 1:28AM
P.S. did someone say she had a nice smile? I didn't get that far up the picture.
yaustar @ Feb 12th 2007 9:06AM
Funnily enough, at University, we had a project that was similar. 6 programmers (no artists etc) per group, each group had the same design document from a freelance game designer and we had to produce the PC game version in 8 weeks from scratch including other assignments we had to do for other modules. Then 2 weeks to port it to the Gamecube.
While this isn't to the scale that is mentioned, make or break it will be a fantastic learning experience if done right for the students.
I hope you guys do well in this project.
Ceejay @ Feb 12th 2007 11:24AM
ok this is my 15th time trying to read the article and I cant get passed the breast part... Can some one just give me the gist of it sans boobs?
Rocket Punch @ Feb 15th 2007 1:59PM
Joystiq need to realize that puttinf pictures like that up next to "words" will render any red blooded male totally disregard the "word" part.
All I can say is I want to explore her Dungeon with my Dragon!
$dan @ Feb 12th 2007 7:38PM
Her boobs made me tingly.
Thomas Mannino @ Feb 14th 2007 9:05PM
Comparing Carnegie Melon to a Visual and Media Arts/Communication College isn't really fair, either. Neither is saying "Gorsh that's not hard to do."
The people that go to that school don't go to learn computer science, or programming. They go to learn the art and theory. Y'know, the really practical stuff. Like how to make french frys or work in retail after you graduate.
(I'm allowed to tease because I'm an Alumni. =P)