Events
Students Showcase Original Video Games
RALEIGH, N.C (July 23, 2024) – Dozens of future game developers at Wake Tech showed off their skills Tuesday to a packed house on Southern Wake Campus.
Nearly 60 students in the Simulation and Game Development (SGD) program presented their original video games to family, friends and representatives from local game companies at the annual Student Showcase. The showcase is a capstone project that allows students to collaborate with each other to learn how to build and design games for a game development company from scratch. This is the largest summer capstone course in the program's history.
During the event, 10 teams demonstrated the use of Unity and Unreal Engine in the creation of games they completed over the last eight weeks based on this year's theme, "Good Intentions." Students presented their games, discussed the roles of each team member in development and shared skills they learned during the project.
The games included Beyond the Clouds: "A cozy isometric game guiding old souls to the afterlife," and Trade N' Transit: "Bringing Corn, Crops & Cryo to a planet near you!"
Associate Professor Amber Marie Johnson, one of the instructors who taught the course, says all the students worked very hard on their original games.
"The experience is intense, but very rewarding," said Johnson. "The exposure to game companies during the showcase will help our students gain employment."
Alden Chappell, one of the students who helped design a game called The Brimstone, was recently selected for a paid internship at Funcom, a global video game company with a studio in Morrisville.
"The SGD program at Wake Tech is phenomenal," Chappell said. "The instructors gave me the skills I need to pursue my dream career. I have loved video games since I was a kid, and now I get to design games for other people to play! It really is surreal. There are so many talented people in this industry, and they chose me!
Wake Tech offers an Associate in Applied Science degree and a variety of certificates in SGD. Graduates qualify for employment as testers, quality assurance analysts, artists, animators, programmers, designers, engineers and administrators. Jobs are available in the entertainment industry, health care, education, corporate training and government organizations.
Wake Tech's SGD program started in 2006 with a grant from the National Science Foundation. Graduates are employed by industry leaders such as Epic and Red Storm/Ubisoft, as well as Funcom and Limited Run Games. Many also publish their own titles.
Wake Tech also offers esports as part of its competitive athletics programs.
