FARTs. Foursquare. Video games.
Media Arts and Game Development lecturer Spencer Striker said this year’s installment of the MAGD expo will be one to remember.
“I think this year’s event is going to be the biggest and best one yet, and people who attend will get to see some really cool stuff from the MAGD program,” Striker said.
The MAGD expo will take place from 4-9 p.m. April 16 in the UC. and will include a Foursquare minigame and a number of guest speakers.
Striker said the focus of this year’s expo was to make it a regional event and to attract a larger audience, especially where the UW-Whitewater student body is concerned. The past few expos were held on weekends, but this year it will take place on a Friday.
The expo itself is not an original concept, but Striker said what makes UW-Whitewater’s unique is that it’s an interdisciplinary event. The expo draws on the talent from several departments to create a collaborative experience. The students are taken out of the classroom and offered the opportunity to have their work evaluated in a real-world setting.
“People from different fields working together is a 21st century skill,” Striker said. “What’s exciting about our showcase for students of different walks of life is getting to see the synergy of work between multimedia and games, but also the combination of art, communication and computer science.”
In addition to viewing two and three dimensional art and testing games, the public will have the opportunity to hear from two key-note speakers.
One is 25-year gaming industry veteran and vice president of Fun Machine, Neil Glancy. Having worn the hat of artist, designer and director, Glancy will offer his perspective to help students manage their projects, both large and small.
“I’m planning to discuss farts and sauce,” Glancy said. “By that I mean ‘Features And Resources and Time’ as well as the industry’s ‘Secret Sauce.’”
Glancy said he encourages students to think of questions for the speaker question and answer session so he can clue students in to what software development companies are looking for.
The second speaker will be Foursquare lead-engineer Matthew Rathbone. He will explain the process of using gaming concepts outside of games to drive user engagement. As part of National Foursquare Day on April 16, Rathbone will also be facilitating a Foursquare mini-game for attendees.
“I’ve been in the industry for seven years and build games in my spare time, so I’m pretty excited to speak at this event,” Rathbone said. “I want to highlight the use of game mechanics to increase user retention and involvement by examining things like Foursquare.
“Preparing your work for an audience is very time consuming and seeing how people react to it provides insight for the future. I’m planning to draw on both good and bad examples from Foursquare.”
The best projects will earn cash prizes, but Striker said the experience students will gain from publicly displaying their work is what is most important.
“While it’s a competition and people can win money and ‘schwag’ prizes, students have the opportunity to have their work evaluated by the public,” Striker said. “Students will have a venue for people to see their work, and visibility and competition are very important when working on multimedia.”
