Sock monkeys to war, UAT students showcase new video games

Video contribution by Xavier Smith
From a sock monkey finding its way to its friend to a real-time WWI strategy game, the University of Advancing Technology’s Greenlight Celebration last Friday showcased five student-created video games from the UAT Game Studios.
“Tonight was very special because it was the first time we really opened up this process,” UAT associate professor Ben Reichert said. “I told the students to put their best foot forward and get out there and make an awesome pitch and they all did.”

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Highlights from Greenlight Celebration

The five game groups had the chance to pitch their video games to a room of fellow students, game designers, venture capitalists, and representatives from other tech companies in the Valley.
The Summer 2015 program had over 90 students working on five games. The five games that were featured at the event were:
Ascendance – An action survival game set in the year 2017 after a biological virus has hit the U.S.
Mirrored – This game follows the life of an 8-year-old girl after she loses her parents and the struggles she goes through after that life changing event.
The Great War – Based on World War I, this game is a real-time strategy game with large scale battlefields.
Knick Knax – Based around two sock monkey friends who lose each other in a toy store and have to find their way back to one another. This game is available for download.
Oxygen – A survival horror game set in space.
“Mirrored is about the journey of the main protagonist Lily. She’s a girl, 8 years old, she had a traumatic event, her parents passed away. She has to work through it as she goes through the game,” Benjamin Pope, lead of Live in the Game Studio said. “Everything means something in the game.”
READ: Broken Window Studios releases Reflections, an open world narrative video game, on STEAM — video
All of the game teams had been working on their projects from 15 to 30 weeks, depending on how many semesters they had been in the program.
The gaming program at UAT was started in 1997. The program gives students the chance to collaborate with other students both undergraduate and graduate in on-ground and online programs. The fall 2015 semester will have 8 different projects.
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