Both students received or are working toward Bachelor of Fine Arts in Game Design and are taking part in the eight-month incubator program to help develop a new game.
Lawrence Technological University offers a Game Design program, and a recent graduate, Maggie Hartman, and a current student, Anthony Schooley, have an exciting opportunity thanks to their program and their professor, Stephen Mallory. The students are helping game design company Epic Games develop its new video game called Alembic through the Unreal Incubator.
According to an article on Lawrence Technological University’s website, Mallory described the Unreal Engine as “a fantastic tool in terms of its complexity and flexibility.” The Unreal Engine is game design software utilized by many game developers, including Epic Games.
Mallory spent more than ten years in the game design industry himself and teaches a handful of game design-related courses at LTU, including an introductory course in game design for freshmen, a sophomore-level history of games class, and a senior-level game development studio class. Mallory invited Hartman and Schooley to participate in the Unreal Incubator program, which is an eight-month immersive experience that gives them a real-life taste of what game design is actually like.
Hartman and Schooley have until May to complete a working version of Alembic, guided by weekly check-ins with a faculty member well versed in Unreal Engine, Anthony Fox. Unreal Engine is used for other projects outside of the video game world, including movies, advertisements, and corporate training programs.
Talking about the Unreal Incubator, Schooley said, “We have a lot of freedom with this, which is very nice. This program has given me more hands-on experience. Whether Maggie and I want to start our own studio, or I want to get hired by another studio, or whether I want to go work doing renderings for a car company, this is a really good program to make that transition.” He went on to say that he and Hartman work well together and that “If this turns into a jumping-off point for us to start our own studio, I'm for it. I think we make a pretty good team.”
After completing the incubator, both Hartman and Schooley intend to go on to get a certification that allows them to be Authorized Unreal Instructors.
Hartman is pleased with the education she received in the Game Design program at LTU. She said, I was looking around at programs in game design, but when I toured here I learned they also teach coding and overall development. It's much more in-depth than I thought it would be.”
The school intends to continue offering the program in the future.
For more information about Lawrence Technological University, visit the school’s website.