Tag Archives: gil

USC Interactive Media & Games faculty Jeremy Gibson and students from our MFA program play Ninja in front of Blooming Flowers, an interactive installation which uses the newly developed Full-Body Scrubber. And the audience became performers shaped as Lego blocks in front of the other procedurally-generated, real-time, ‘fun-house mirror’ at Rhythms and Visions 2, April 26, 2013.  Here’s what it looks like from the other side of the screen.

From the USC news site: The University of Southern California has been named the number one game design school in North America by The Princeton Review for its graduate program. This ranking is shared by the USC School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) Interactive Media and Games Division and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s Department of Computer Science. USC has been ranked the number one school for game design for each year The Princeton Review has released the ranking. USC took the number 2 position for its undergraduate program.

“This ranking is a tremendous honor for us, and it recognizes the effort we put into constantly growing and improving our program,” said Tracy Fullerton, the Electronic Arts Endowed Chair of the Interactive Media and Games Division. “I’d say this has been a banner year for us in that regard, with some outstanding new faculty joining us from industry, our brand new interactive building, the tenth anniversary of the program and the amazing achievements of our alumni like those at thatgamecompany, who won eight D.I.C.E. awards last month. It’s all very gratifying to see how our efforts are having real impact for our students and in the industry.”

More info here.

From the School of Cinematic Arts news page: The School of Cinematic Arts’ Interactive Media Division has long been at the forefront of innovative gameplay. To emphasize its commitment to studying games and playable media in all forms, IMD will be renamed the Interactive Media and Games Division.

“Given the groundbreaking work in games that our faculty and students have produced in the decade since our division was formed, this is a natural step.” said Tracy Fullerton, the Electronic Arts Endowed Chair of Interactive Media and Games. “We’ve been passionate about the advancement of the form and the design of meaningful game experiences since our beginnings, and this name change shows our commitment to furthering the study of games here at USC.”

More here.

This name change comes in a banner year for our division — it marks our tenth anniversary, it will soon mark the opening of our new building, dedicated to the study and research of Interactive Media and Games, and it also marks a year of incredible success for our alumni. Not only have we seen Journey awarded Game of the Year, Best Game Direction and more from D.I.C.E., but just this week it also dominated the videogame awards at BAFTA, taking best game design among other honors. Also, The Unfinished Swan took home best Debut Game and Game Innovation from BAFTA, so all around an amazing year.

We wish these alumni and all the rest the very best in their continued efforts to make playful experiences that move us intellectually and emotionally! We can’t wait to see what the next ten years will bring…

There is a nice story on learning in games in this month’s NEA Arts. The story talks about two projects, one of which is our own Walden, a game. Read the full story here.

Every time thatgamecompany does something to make us proud here at IMD, I think, well, it can’t get better than that, can it? But they always find a way to surprise me. Tonight, it was picking up 8 awards at the 16th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, including Game of the Year for Journey. You can see Variety’s coverage of the story here.

To some people, the success that this group has had might look easy. Certainly, they make it look like they are wielding some serious magic behind the scenes. But to those of us who know them, and have seen them grow as artists, we know that the root of that magic is a sense of absolute integrity in their work, dedication, perseverance, vision, timing, and yes, maybe a bit of sorcery.

Congratulations to all of you, and especially to my dear friends Jenova and Kellee. I hope you are treasuring this experience!

Richard Lemarchand introduced the work of the Game Innovation Lab to journalist at GLIMPSE: A Digital Technology Showcase.

Elizabeth Swensen and Sean Bouchard presented the Collegeology games, Jeff Watson talked about Reality Ends Here, and Peter Brinson showed The Cat and the Coup.

Jose Climaco, a high school student at Foshay Technology Academy, talks about his experience playing Mission: Admission and how it helped him prepare for the college admissions process. Jose’s story is pretty much exactly why we made the game, so it is nice to see him articulate its benefits in his own words. Good luck with your future plans, Jose! And thanks for playing!

Here is a nice shout out in the IES Newsletter about Mission: Admission, the second of four college knowledge games that the Game Innovation lab has been working on. Mission:Admission is a Facebook game; upcoming projects include a middle school game, FutureBound, for PC/Mac and iOS and a financial literacy game.

Ted Braun and the Game Innovation Lab host Luis Moreno Ocampo and team for a discussion about his new global partnership in peace and justice education.

Pictured from left: Carlos Davis, Margie Dillenburg, Mark Harris, Susana Ruiz, Ted Braun, Luis Moreno Ocampo, Tracy Fullerton, Jeff Watson, Peter Brinson, Kristy Norindr, Sean Bouchard, Elizabeth Swensen