Posts tagged with local in Blog Eaten by a Grue

The National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC's) Step Show fundraiser for this year will be entitled "Game Over" and will feature each of the chapters in the NPHC performing their rendition of various video games.

A piece appeared in UM's Michigan Today about Sid Meier's Game Design Boot Camp, which took place earlier this Summer. In it, we discover what gave him the idea for the boot camp, which companies were involved, and a bit about how it was structured. We also learn that not only was Sid Meier's son Ryan involved (a UM graduate), but also his mother, who attended the event as well.

UM is hosting a two-week game design boot camp at the Computer Science Building on North Campus, led by award-winning game designer Sid Meier and UM EECS professor John Laird.It will be held May 7-18, and is targeted at undergraduates in their junior/senior year or recent graduates, with previous class-related or independent game design experience.

Matt Gilgenbach, an alum of UM as well as the university's game development group Wolverine Soft, has been featured in a guest editorial on Kotaku.In it, he discusses his soon to be released game Retro/Grade, which is designed to be played with a guitar controller, although a game pad will suffice as well.In the editorial, he discusses the lack of new game material designed for the guitar controller, which he believes is a major determinant in its gradual decline in popularity over the past few years.

This week, the archive received a donation that was a special treat, a glimpse into our local video game industry from almost a decade ago: Alter Echo.Alter Echo was the last game developed by an Ann Arbor-based company called Outrage Entertainment, which developed games in Ann Arbor from about 1997-2004. And the generous donor of said game? None other than one of the testers of Alter Echo, Tod Schlegelmilch.The game isn't yet available for play, but keep searching Mirlyn to stay up to date on its status. I'm sure it will be a game well worth checking out!

Wolverine Soft is hosting a game development contest this weekend in which a group of participants design a game within 48 hours. Game themes are announced at the beginning of the event. Participants don't need to be game programmers - musicians, artists, and people with design ideas are welcome as well. Registration is open to current students of any university in Michigan or alumni who have graduated in the past 6 years (except those currently involved in the video game industry). Pre-registration is encouraged.

Ann Arbor District Library is holding finals for the Arcade Master Series this Friday from 6-8:30pm at the downtown library, so don't forget to check it out! Food and musical Chiptunes entertainment will also be included.Participate for a chance to win an iPad 2 with iCade mini arcade cabinet! Hope to see you there.More about the event here.

We recently had the opportunity to host a social event for the A2 GeekTour, whose aim is to create "a chance for geeks to get together and explore a physical space that has some claim to geekdom." Highlights included the group experiencing moments of nostalgia as they checked out our Atari games and some of the older equipment, as well as an opportunity for them to rock out with a few Rock Band songs, complete with the string guitar controller.

University of Michigan psychology professor Susanne M. Jaeggi was quoted today in an L.A. Times article about research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that explored the possibility of certain video games improving the reasoning and working memory ability of children who play them.

Save the date!WolverineSoft, a student group on campus that focuses on game development, is planning a Tech Day on Saturday, October 8th. The event is designed to give a broad introduction to the University of Michigan's College of Engineering by inviting high school students and college transfer students to see the Engineering campus. They will have a table to display their club and its games.