Congratulations to the 51StandFire senior project team for WINNING FIRST PLACE BEST GAME PLAY at Intel’s Univeristy Games Showcase at this year’s Game Developers Conference!! The competition this year included invitation-only top Game Design schools including Carnegie Mellon, NYU, RIT, Savannah College of Art and Design, SMU, USC, UC/Santa Cruz, Utah, the University of Texas, and Digipen. The Drexel Team’s game, “Mirrors of Grimaldi” won with a very unique game play dynamic featuring a multi-player interface that increases or reduces a player’s available screen space based on how well they are competing against other players in each match. More information is available on the team’s website: http://51standfire.com/

A group of  Drexel Game Art and Production and CS seniors attended the Game Developers Conference where they presented their game, Gygan Reign, at Intel's University Game Showcase. Drexel was one of a handful of the top Game Design schools invited to the Showcase, and one of the few undergraduate programs showing their work. Gygan Reign,a Wave Based Strategy game for PC which brings the depth and intensity of RTS games to a casual audience.

Dr. Frank Lee received substantial press attention in more than 1,400 national and international outlets for his creation of the giant Tetris game played on all sides of the Cira Center on April 5 for the kickoff of Philly Tech Week. Coverage included every national broadcast and cable news channel, as well as a New York Times video and blog post and a feature segment on Discovery Channel (Canada) that aired on April 7. He subsequently received certification of a new world record beating his 2013 record in September.

A group of about a dozen Drexel Game Art and Production and CS juniors and seniors attended the Game Developers Conference where they presented their game, The Unseen, at Intel's University Game Showcase. Drexel was one of a handful of the top Game Design schools invited to the Showcase, and one of the few undergraduate programs showing their work. The Unseen is a science-fiction first person horror game for PC where you play as Anala Warren, a scientist left behind on an evacuated research station in space. With the Portable Energy Generator, ”the only tool at your disposal,” you must survive against an unknown enemy as you try to find a way off the station. Drexel students were also invited to present their game at the Intel exhibition booth.

In it's 5th appearance in the top 10, Drexel University's Digital Media MS degree is #4 on a list saluting the best graduate institutions in the U.S. and Canada to study game design, according to The Princeton Review, one of America's most widely known education services and test preparation companies.  Drexel University is again in the Top 10 for the 4th time on a list saluting the 50 best graduate institutions in the U.S. and Canada to study game design, according to The Princeton Review, one of America's most widely known education services and test preparation companies.  The Princeton Review developed its list in partnership with GamePro, one of the most respected brands in the video game industry, reaching over 3 million gamers a month.

The list is reported in PC Gamer's's May 2014 issue and on the websites of The Princeton Review (www.princetonreview.com) and PC Gamer (www.pcgamer.com). 

In November 2013, Guinness World Records has officially certified Drexel's "The Pong on the Cira Centre" as a Guinness World Record as the Largest Architectural Videogame Display. See April's news in the Events section for more information.

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SmartVCS: Shooting Avatar on Your iPad?

Girish Balakrishnan, Drexel DIGM BS/MS 2013

Congratulations to recent Digital Media graduate Girish Balakrishnan for winning the Unity Awards at the Unite Conference. Unite 2013 is the annual event for Unity developers, publishers and enthusiasts to learn more about the market-leading platform for creating high quality video games, training simulations, medical and architectural visualizations and other interactive 3D content. Girish's thesis project won the Best Student Project category.

SmartVCS: Shooting Avatar on Your iPad?

With accessible hardware such as multi-touch tablets and the latest video game motion controllers, there is an opportunity to develop a new intelligent, freespace capture device and platform using nothing more than consumer technologies to augment and evolve the functionality of the virtual camera system. Girish Balakrishnan (DIGM MS 13) will be presenting along with his advisor, Dr. Paul Diefenbach, his thesis work on a new pipeline for production. See our Research page for more information.

Drexel Game Design Faculty Position

Drexel University seeks applications for a full time tenure-track faculty position available in its nationally ranked Drexel Game Design Program. The successful candidate should hold a Ph.D. or terminal degree in a related field with a demonstrated body of accomplishments in game design, game art, game production, and/or game research. Industry experience in game development and production is a plus. We are seeking candidates with backgrounds in either Digital Media or Computer Science, who have in-depth knowledge and skills in game related areas including, but not limited to, game design, game art and animation, game studies, mobile games and/or game production. Responsibilities include teaching and advising students at the undergraduate and graduate levels, productivity in research, scholarship, or creative work, and service at the college and university levels.

The start date for the anticipated position is September 1, 2014. Review of applications will begin December 1, 2013 and continue until the position is filled. All applications must be submitted though DrexelJobs.com (position number 5681.)

Dr. Noah Wardrip-Fruin is visiting the GMAP program on May 14-15, 2013. As part of his visit, he will give an invited talk titled "Growing the Tech Tree: Researching the Future of Games" on May 14, 5-6:20PM, at URBN 239.

Noah Wardrip-Fruin is Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of California Santa Cruz, where he co-directs the Expressive Intelligence Studio, one of the world's largest technical research groups focused on games. His research areas include new models of storytelling in games, how games express ideas through play, and how games can help broaden understanding of the power of computation. Wardrip-Fruin also directs UCSC's Digital Arts and New Media MFA program and the Playable Media group within it.

In it's 3rd appearance in the top 10, Drexel University's Digital Media MS degree is #3 on a list saluting the best graduate institutions in the U.S. and Canada to study game design, according to The Princeton Review, one of America's most widely known education services and test preparation companies.  Drexel University is again in the Top 10 for the 3rd time at #6 on a list saluting the 50 best undergraduate institutions in the U.S. and Canada to study game design, according to The Princeton Review, one of America's most widely known education services and test preparation companies.  The Princeton Review developed its list in partnership with GamePro, one of the most respected brands in the video game industry, reaching over 3 million gamers a month.

The list is reported in PC Gamer's's May 2013 issue and on the websites of The Princeton Review (www.princetonreview.com) and PC Gamer (www.pcgamer.com). 

Drexel University seeks applications for a full time tenure-track faculty position available in its Drexel Game Design Program, a collaborative effort between the Digital Media Program in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design and the Computer Science Department in the College of Computing and Informatics. The start date for the anticipated position is September 1, 2013. Drexel University is a comprehensive research university ranked among the top 100 in the nation. The Digital Media Program has been ranked in the top 10 programs to study video game design by Gamepro Media and the Princeton Review. See job posting at: http://drexel.edu/westphal/about/employment/AssistantProfessor_DIGM/ Note: While the posting states a Ph.D as a requirement, non-Ph.D candidates with significant industry experience would also be considered.

Digital Media graduate student Glenn Winters received notification that his analysis of the narrative structure of the game Journey was one of three top platinum winners at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, CA through March 25 2013 - March 29 2013. Winning out of thousands of applicants, Glenn will be presenting as part of the Conference Narrative Review. This is a competition in which participating students conduct a high-level structure analysis of the narrative elements of a game title of their choice. Glenn's study analyzing the game Journey is a key component of his MS thesis research which focuses on defining goal directed attention structure composition patterns as a subset of visual narrative arcs within 3D adventure games. As a result of this honor, he will be presenting his paper in poster form on the Conference Expo floor, which is open to all 22,000 attendees. After the conference, his work can be referenced as part of the permanent archives of GDC at http://www.gdcvault.com/gamenarrativereview.

A team of Drexel undergraduate students earned world acclaim for designing smartphone apps as part of Microsoft's Imagine Cup Competition. "Team Drexel Dragons" won the U.S. Championship for their design of a math learning program. Drexel sent two teams to the national final and now "Team Drexel Dragons" is has won the World Championship in Sydney, Australia in July.

"Our game, 'MathDash,' that won in the Mobile Games category, is a game that teaches kids from first – eighth grade arithmetic," said Dr. Frank Lee, co-director of the Drexel Game Design Program and the advisor of "The Drexel Dragons" team. "Our goal was to not only make a game that was educational, but was a whole lot of fun to play. I believe we succeeded."

The Imagine Cup is considered to be one of the most challenging technology competitions in the computer science community with over 250,000 students from 190 countries. Teams from across the nation compete in three categories: software design, game design and IT challenge. A second qualifying round was held in April and, from the combined pool of finalists, champions were selected in each of the categories to represent the United States in the World Cup Competition.

See our new Facilities page for more information!

Drexel Game Design weclomes Digital Media's new Program Director: Dr. Miachel Wagner.

Dr. Michael Wagner is Associate Professor and the Director of the Digital Media Program at the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design. Prior to his position at Drexel he held academic teaching, research and executive management positions at the Department of Computer Science at Arizona State University, the Department of Educational Technology and Interactive Media at Danube University Krems, Austria, and the Christian University College of Teacher Education Vienna/Krems, Austria.

His research interests focus on the educational use of digital media and computer games. He is the scientific director of "Ludwig", a curriculum based physics learning game for middle schools that has been awarded with the German Game Developer Award for Best Serious Game 2011.

Degrees: MS in Mathematics Education, Vienna University of Technology PhD in Applied Mathematics, Vienna University of Technology MBA in High Tech Management, Arizona State University

Website: http://www.about.me/michaelgwagner

Drexel Game Design and the Drexel RePlay Lab welcome two new faculty: Dr. Santiago Ontanon Villar and Dr. Jichen Zhu.

Dr. Santiago Ontanon Villar was a Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Researcher at the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain prior to coming to Drexel. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Barcelona, and also worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research spans the broad areas of artificial intelligence (particularly case-based reasoning), machine learning, and gaming, with titles including Case-Based Reasoning and User-Generated AI for Real-Time Strategy Games, Drama Management and Player Modeling for Interactive Fiction Games, and Adaptive Computer Games: Easing the Authorial Burden.

Dr. Jichen Zhu was an assistant professor of Digital Media in School of Visual Arts and Design, at University of Central Florida prior to joining Drexel. She was also the director of the Procedural Expression Lab. Her work focuses on developing humanistic and interpretive theoretical framework of computational technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), and constructing AI-based cultural artifacts. Her current research areas include digital humanities, software studies, computational narrative, and serious games. Jichen Zhu received a Ph.D. in Digital Media from Georgia Tech, under the advisement of Dr. D. Fox Harrell. She also holds a MS in Computer Science from Georgia Tech, and a Master of Entertainment Technology from Carnegie Mellon University. Her work on analogy-based story generation (ASG) was presented in IJCAI 2011 this summer, and she is an invited speaker at the Symposium on Narrative Intelligence: AI Approaches for Games and Fiction at the Expressive Intelligence Studio, UC Santa Cruz.

In its first graduate ranking ever, Drexel University's Digital Media MS degree is #5 on a list saluting the best graduate institutions in the U.S. and Canada to study game design, according to The Princeton Review, one of America's most widely known education services and test preparation companies.  Drexel University is remains in the Top 10 for the second stragith year at #7 on a list saluting the 50 best undergraduate institutions in the U.S. and Canada to study game design, according to The Princeton Review, one of America's most widely known education services and test preparation companies.  The Princeton Review developed its list in partnership with GamePro, one of the most respected brands in the video game industry, reaching over 3 million gamers a month.

The list is reported in GamePro's April 2011 issue and on the websites of The Princeton Review (www.princetonreview.com) and GamePro (www.gamepro.com). 

Philly GameJam 2011 Drexel University's gaming teams won the two major awards at the 3rd annual Philly Game Jam. Duck It! by Space Whale Studios won the "WTF? Award" and Winston’s Eggventure by Team UC15 was winner of the Judges’ Choice Award at the 3rd Annual Philly Game Jam,May 6-8. Held in conjunction with the Too Many Games Expo, the Game Jam included teams from nearby universities and professional game developers. Their goal was to create a video game within 48 hours based on an abstract theme. The two award categories were "Most Innovative Game" and "Game Closest to the Concept." The Space Whale Studios team, while not officially from Drexel, consisted of mostly current and former Drexel students.

Drexel Game Design and the Drexel RePlay Lab was featured in the story Game Designers' Bright Future On the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man, the video game industry offers lucrative careers in a big money business. Jeff Glor reports.

Kotaku, one of Gawker Media's "Gawker" network of sites, and named to CNET News' Blog 100, wrote a story on Digital Media student Dan Fornace's Super Smash Land, an 8-bit de-creation reimagined onto a d-pad and two buttons. The article is titled "Super Smash Bros. 'De-made' For Game Boy Looks Crazy Enough To Work."

Drexel University is #3 on a list saluting the 50 best undergraduate institutions in the U.S. and Canada to study game design, according to The Princeton Review, one of America's most widely known education services and test preparation companies.  The Princeton Review developed its "Top 50 Undergraduate Game Design Programs" list - the first project of its kind - in partnership with GamePro, one of the most respected brands in the video game industry, reaching over 3 million gamers a month.

The list is reported in GamePro's April 2010 issue and on the websites of The Princeton Review (www.princetonreview.com) and GamePro (www.gamepro.com). 

Congratulations to our Digital Media senior group, The Fourmation and their head-tracking multiplayer video game, Fourmation, for winning the 9th annual Adobe Design Achievement Awards in the Non-Browser-based Design category. This was presented at the Icongrada World Design Congress in Bejiing China. The Fourmation team were competing against 3300 student entries from 37 different countries. Fourmation is a 3D action-packed multiplayer Flash game that uses Wii technology to bring virtual reality to the home computer.

Philly GameJam 2009 Drexel University's gaming team, Team Reverie, took First Place with "Most Innovative Game" at the 2nd Annual Philly Game Jam, Oct. 23-25, 2009. Held in conjunction with the GameX Industry Summit, the Game Jam included teams from nearby universities and professional game developers. Their goal was to create a video game within 48 hours based on an abstract theme. The two award categories were "Most Innovative Game" and "Game Closest to the Concept." While Team Reverie won first place in "Most Innovative Game" with their game, Insight, a team from Space Whale Studios took second place in both categories with their game, The Shovel Nose Screamer. The Space Whale Studios team, while not officially from Drexel, consisted of mostly current and former Drexel students.

Congratulations to Dan Bodenstein who took part in the GameJam! at SIGGRAPH last week in New Orleans, and his team won for 2D - Crowd Favorite