Four teams from IVC's Interactive Media Arts (IMA) program were selected as finalists in the 12th annual Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) GameSiG Showcase, which took place on April 16. Abiel Montes won the first-place trophy, and a group of 10 IVC students won a special award for best cinematics.
Last year’s 3rd place winner Alex Puh, who is an IVC alumnus, now works at Sega.
Digital Media Art instructor Patricia Beckmann says, “Typically, there are only 30 entries for this event from Orange County four-year colleges and high schools, and to see IVC with four finalist positions is truly something for us to be proud of.”
The showcase called for student teams to submit a YouTube video promoting a game they developed. The videos are then individually reviewed by a group of industry and academic personnel. Games were ranked based on their perceptions of the gameplay experience as demonstrated by the video.
On the day of the event, judges watched the provided videos on a live stream, then asked questions of the teams via private messaging, reading the answers and discussing them on the stream for everyone to hear. Teams had five minutes to answer questions.
Beckmann says the student’s projects were completed in IMA 191, 192, and 193 Portfolio. Beckmann explains, “The students learned industry level production skills from instructors Colin McCall, Fang Li, Edwin Gomez, Shon Stewart, and Carlos Fins prior to attending Portfolio.”
Selected entries:
Gooji Gooji Unknown Villain
TEAM:
Poorya Baine: Producer, Creative Director, Game Design
Alternates:
Sevgi Bilgen: Modeling
Gerardo Serrano: Rigging, Animation
Ghazal Yazdani: Concept Artist
Jordan Watts: Modeling
Geoffrey Knecht: 2D Animation, Music
Roo Mutch: Rigging, Animation
Abiel Montes: Game Design
Athena Caiopoulos: Modeling
Elric’s Journey
Cole Keesey: Solo project
Golden Gear
Abiel Montes: Solo project
Poorya Baine: Project consultant
Trap Run
Tyrone Alarcon
Sasha Klein
Michelle Chen