XBOX-HQ.COM - Parsons School of Design Partners with Atari

BCossette Writes:

Parsons School of Design, a division of New School University, announced the winners of its first 24-hour game design event, “Retro Redux,” held in collaboration with Atari at an award ceremony held today.

Taking place April 2-3, Retro Redux challenged teams of students from New York-area colleges and universities to design games that would withstand the test of time using technology comparable to the original Atari 2600, which gave rise to such classic games as Asteroids, Missile Command, Pong and Centipede.

The resulting games were judged in the categories of top overall game, most innovative game design, best sound, and best visuals, with the top overall game to be considered for inclusion in an upcoming version of the Atari Flashback Game Console.

“Retro Redux provided students with the opportunity to test their creativity and design skills by re-inventing classic games from the birth of the video game era,” said Katie Salen, the director of the MFA Design and Technology Program at Parsons and a professional game designer. “By bringing together students from the leading university game design programs in the New York area, Parsons’ goal was to showcase the tremendous talent to be found in the region.”

Nine teams of recent and current students from Parsons, Mercy College, New York University, Renssaeler Polytechnic Institute, and the School of Visual Arts – approximately 40 students total - participated in the game jam, which began Saturday, April 2, at noon and proceeded until 1 p.m., Sunday, April 3, taking into account daylight savings time. Following the conclusion of the jam, the resulting XX games were reviewed by a panel of three judges – Carl Goodman, Curator of Digital Media, American Museum of the Moving Image; Alex Galloway, founding member of the software development group RSG; and Graham Leggat, game columnist, New York Daily News and FILMMAKER Magazine – who evaluated the games based on quality of game play, visual design, sound design, and experimentation.

“Our partnership with Parsons for its first 24-hour game jam underscores Atari’s commitment in inspiring and supporting future game designers,” said Wim Stocks, executive vice president of Sales and Marketing for Atari. “We were excited to see the results of the competition, and especially impressed by the skillfulness displayed by all of the participants.”

The following were the award-winning games:

Top Overall Game: “Ninja Garden,” Team “Club Awesome” (Matt Brant, Evan Harper, Raymond Zablocki, and Theodore Watson), Parsons School of Design

This two-player game features a red and a blue ninja who must blast their way through a garden of cherry blossom trees in order to reach and destroy the enemy’s temple.

Honorable Mention: “Princess,” Team “Flashsmack” (Ward Childress, Cory McWilliams, Sunbir Gill, Luis Barriga), Renssaeler Polytechnic Institute

Inverting the archetypical videogame, the princess is the hero who saves herself from a series of increasingly challenging scenarios that cleverly allude to classic video games.

Most Innovative Game: “Princess,” Team “Flashsmack” (Ward Childress, Cory McWilliams, Sunbir Gill, Luis Barriga), Renssaeler Polytechnic Institute

Honorable Mention: “Cats + Mice,” Team “Show No Mercy” (Cynthia Arbore, Mike Bonifacio, Adam Deyglio, Chris Whittaker, Steve Zuccara)

A puzzle-solving game where a mouse makes it way through a series of mazes eating one type of cheese to make it big enough to break through walls and invulnerable to cats, and another type to make it small enough to fit through mouse holes.

Best Visuals: “Bull Run!” Team “Pixel Pirates” (Travis Griggs, Andres Hernandez, Nelson Ramirez, Samuel Roldan, Mason Staugler, Brea Taylor-Munro), School of Visual Arts A bull makes its way through Spain’s famed “Running of the Bulls,” attempting to gore runners while avoiding running into obstacles placed along the route.

Best Sound: “Piranha Massacre,” Team “Superfriends” (Austin Chang, Aric Cheston, Jason Corace, Victoria Fang, Mattia Romeo), Parsons/New York University TischITP A piranha moves it way through waters filled with prey and predators, attempting to score points by eating its prey while avoiding being eaten by its predators.

Game Design at Parsons School of Design Located in the heart of New York City, Parsons School of Design offers graduate and – starting in fall 2005 – undergraduate studies in game design, the fastest-growing sector in the new media industry, through its BFA and MFA Design and Technology programs.

As part of New School University, Parsons students are encouraged to identify new forms of games that go beyond the traditional entertainment sector, collaborating with other divisions such as the Parsons Institute for Information Mapping (piim.newschool.edu) Eugene Lang College, and the Graduate Faculty to design games with learning outcomes and ideological agendas. Emerging technologies and practices related to haptic interfaces, motion capture, mobile technology, and micro-controllers provide a context for research on alternative interfaces and for games that take advantage of connections between social technologies, community practices, and public space.

“At Parsons, students learn to think critically about the role technology plays in the design, production, dissemination, and use of games,” said Colleen Macklin, Chair of the Design and Technology Program at Parsons. “The tremendous success of our MFA-level concentration in game design made it clear to us that there was a demand for academic training at the undergraduate level as well. To meet this demand, we are launching a game design concentration at the BFA level this coming fall.”

For more information about Retro Redux, visit http://retroredux.parsons.edu. For information about game design at Parsons, visit http://games.parsons.edu/games.html.

More information on the Atari Flashback Game Console can be found online at www.atari.com. A full list of Retro Redux teams and resulting games is attached.

News-Source: http://www.teamxbox.com