High-tech gaming equipment turns dreamers into developers
Category: campus experience
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High-tech gaming equipment turns dreamers into developers
Virginia Tech students Jason Hodge and Matt Finn are developing their video game, "Grey’s Sonata," using cutting-edge motion capture and studio-grade technology available through the University Libraries. With access to industry-level resources typically reserved for top-tier gaming studios, they gain hands-on experience that gives them a significant advantage as they prepare for careers in game development.
The game that we're working on is a three D physics puzzle game, and it's a game where the story kind of reveals itself to you. The more you play, you start kind of not knowing a lot. And then as you solve the puzzles, you get to know more about the story. Call me when you're done. Wait, I didn't get your name. The game is called Grace nata. It's on steam. Free demos out right now. We're hoping to release a game hopefully around August over the summer. Aah. The motion capture setup has been instrumental for this. Like, we have a lot of animations in our game, and fully animating everything would take way too long. We wouldn't be able to get it done by the time I graduate. So using this has cut down production time a lot, and facial tracking has been really good, as well. Boom. Being able to have hands on experience with this equipment and the technology and, like, the software that's available that's usually like thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars. And having your fingertips for free is something that students all around the country will not have experience in knowing this full technology and how it works and how it functions and how to use it properly is kind of like a foot that's so far ahead of other people. It's just so cool to think that we are using the same things that the Ps do. It's like, probably a bad comparison, but it's like wearing the bronze shoes. I can be them now. Like, there's not much that's separating us. Like, I can make the quality of things that they can. Geri tech allows students to follow their passion, and they're not afraid to buy this equipment for students to try out. And I think it's something I love most about this university.