FIEA Students To Debut Four New Games Aug. 5
A game that uses your eyes as a controller and a personal game of war-torn immigrants highlight this year’s student presentations
Faculty, staff and students will be at UCF’s Center For Emerging Media on Friday, Aug. 5, 2016 to see the debut of four new games from students at the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, UCF’s graduate video game development program. The presentations start at 2 pm at UCF’s Center for Emerging Media, 500 Bentley St. in Orlando.
As a child growing up in war-torn Kosovo, Agnesa Belegu processed the painful episodes she witnessed by drawing the horrible scenes at her bedside table. Now she’s using her difficult childhood as inspiration for a game called “Child No More” where you play as a young child fleeing a war zone in a fictional European town.
Joining a national trend of games like “Papers Please,” “That Dragon, Cancer” and “This War Of Mine” that allow players to empathize with characters as they make difficult moral choices, “Child No More” walks players through grueling decisions as they attempt to save the child Arya from the atrocities of war. Do they protect Arya from the realities of war and save her innocence or let her see the horrors, changing her life forever?
Another game, “The Channeler,” uses the Tobii EyeX eye tracker, which allows the player use their eyes as the game controller to solve crimes committed by spirits. The eye-tracking technology allows players to experience and control the game “in a way they never have before” says project lead Summan Mirza.
The other games being presented are “Ley Lines,” and “Sketch Artist.” In “Ley Lines” you solve puzzles in a ruined temple using powers like altering gravity, slowing time and shifting space. In “Sketch Artist” you play the role of a police sketch artist trying to create accurate drawings of outlandish suspects who are accused of often humorous crimes.
This will be the first time the public will see the games, which the students have been working on for seven months as their master’s thesis. FIEA offers a 16-month master’s degree in interactive entertainment and was recently named the #1 graduate game development program in the world by the Princeton Review.
The event is free and open to the public and it will also be livestreamed at FIEA’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/ucffiea. The public will also be able to speak to the students and see a gallery of art from the games.
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