AUSTIN, Texas—International crime rings and highway construction were two of the winning concepts at Game Court 2006, hosted on April 18 by The University of Texas at Austin’s Science, Technology and Society (STS) Program and the Electronic Game Developers Society.
The university-wide, digital game concept competition encouraged students to design games that defy the violent and sexist themes that stereotype many popular digital games. The judges were industry executives and experts, including Rodney Gibbs, executive studio director, Amaze Entertainment; Steve Jackson, president, Steve Jackson Games; Dr. Okan Arikan, assistant professor, Department of Computer Sciences; and Chris Norden, independent contractor working with Sony on the upcoming PlayStation 3 system.
The judges awarded prizes to student game designers in the following categories: Socially Constructive, Commercially Viable and Looks Like Fun. The contest winners were:
- Socially Constructive: Interstate Highway Builder (Jeff Linwood), first place
- Commercially Viable: Interstate Highway Builder (Jeff Linwood), first place; Art Thief (Joe Rowland), second place; Exegete (Jeff Howard, Joey Taylor, Greg Foran, Ingrid Deviliers, Kyle Edwards), third place
- Looks Like Fun: Art Thief (Joe Rowland), first place; Interstate Highway Builder (Jeff Linwood), second place
“Interstate Highway Builder” is about building highways across different terrain and using certain equipment to solve transportation problems. During construction, players take soil samples and solve math problems in order to build bridges.
“Art Thief” concerns a thief who is trying to reclaim art from villains in Paris. Art experts ask the thief to reclaim certain paintings, genres and movements or risk being caught.
“Exegete” is an alternate reality game where the player solves problems and puzzles while on a quest to stop others who are wrongly interpreting the text in literature classics for their own evil purposes.
The University Co-op sponsored the competition. For more information, visit the Game Court 2006 Web site.
For more information contact: Paul Toprac, 512-663-1488.
