On Saturday, September 17, the RPI Game Development Club hosted the Rensselaer Game Showcase in the McNeil Room. The attendees of this semester’s event, which included over 50 students, had the opportunity to play demos of a plethora of interesting console and computer games while competing for both prizes and bragging rights. Additionally, the Game Showcase had a philanthropic agenda, which was to raise money for the Children’s Center at Albany Medical Center. The event’s raffle was in fact successful, raising over $200 for this worthy cause.
Though not an avid gamer myself, I was extremely impressed that 16 RPI students were able to develop such intricate, professional games that were on par with the professional games hosted by 1st Playable, Defective Studios, and Trouble Impact. In addition, I had the opportunity to try my hand at several of the games.
One game that I particularly enjoyed was the Gimble Cop Track Design game, which was designed to be played on a variety of mobile device platforms. The game is multiplayer: up to two participants race on a track that the track designer designs as the game is progressing. The winner of the game is the driver who reaches the end of the track before the track designer can create additional track. Alternately, the track designer will be crowned the victor should no driver be able to reach the end of the track before the time is up, which signals the game’s finish. This game also featured one of the event’s contests, the Gimble Cop Track Design challenge, whose grand prize was awarded to Maynard Price ’13.
Another highlight of the event was the Catajolt! Battle Tournament. This game was particularly significant because it was developed by RPI students during a Game Development Club-sponsored Game Jam in October of this year. The tournament’s winner was Reginald Franklin ’15, who developed the game with Adam LeClair ’13, Hayden Lee ’16, Brett McNeff ’16, and Marianna Neubauer.