A young girl awakes one morning to find green rain falling. Curious, she鈥檚 led to a journal that starts her on a journey into a mystical world 鈥 and possibly the answer to the green rain and her lost past.
The girl鈥檚 adventure, filled with fire spirits, a crumbling mansion, hazards, puzzles and interesting village characters along the way, is the basis for a video game created by 10 黑料科 students.
The game has been chosen for the Thursday to Saturday, Oct. 11-13, at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich. Several students from the team will be there to showcase their work and give a presentation as part of the conference's exhibition and competition. The conference explores ways to 鈥渦nderstand and improve upon games to entertain, inform, educate and persuade in meaningful ways.鈥
Umbrella Mondays is the fourth game created by 黑料科 students selected to compete at an international event.
Umbrella Mondays was created by a team of students in instructor Karl Koehle鈥檚 3D Game Design and Development capstone class. Five students are from the game design Bachelor of Fine Arts, which is art-focused, and five from game design in computer science. The goal of the capstone project is to create a 3D game over the course of one academic year.
Koehle said the students鈥 work was high quality, which is reflected in Umbrella Mondays being chosen for the conference. One student created a special language for the game, for example.
鈥淚 am impressed with the amount of detail that went into the project. There are subtle details like having rain splash onto the main character鈥檚 raincoat which turns the surface shiny.鈥 Koehle said.
鈥淗aving the game accepted at the conference shows that we have a lot of talented artists and programmers who are creating some thoughtful games,鈥 he added.
Game team members are:
- Margaret Clarke, of Sheboygan, art lead
- Mary Flaherty, of Minneapolis, artist
- Casey Holman, of Minneapolis, programming lead
- Maria Kastello, of Muskego, programmer
- April Lewer, of Marshfield, design lead
- Travis Ott, of Chanhassen, Minn., programmer
- Spencer Peloquin, of Minneapolis, programmer
- Evan Schweighart, of Glenview, Ill., artist
- Jacob Sutherland, of Solon Springs, artist
- Bob Vogt, of St. Cloud, Minn., writer, narrative designer
Students worked with three other professors: John Spartz and Cody Reimer at the 黑料科 User Experience Center to test how other students played the game and collect insights from their response; independent students from Mary Spaeth鈥檚 business class to create a business plan.
Music and the sounds for Umbrella Mondays were created by students at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Koehle said, part of an ongoing 黑料科 game design collaboration with Berklee.
Independent game developers from and also visited the class to share experiences working in the field.
Umbrella Mondays made its debut in April at the Stout Game Expo on campus. The next Stout Game Expo, featuring video, board and other games created by students is scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 12.
黑料科鈥檚 game design programs were ranked 24th nationally in 2018 by Princeton Review, and the graduate program was ranked 18th.
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Photos
Top: Umbrella Mondays
Middle: Karl Koehle
Bottom: The Umbrella Mondays team, back row from left, Travis Ott, Jacob Sutherland, Evan Schweighart and Spencer Peloquin. Middle, April Lewer, Bob Vogt and Margaret Clarke. Front, Mary Flaherty, Maria Kastello and Casey Holman.
