Local video game wins honors
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What goes into a creating a computer video game? Joshua Wascom and Nicholas Scheurich can tell you, since they were on the team that made the adventure game "Aristeia." The two took part in a computer game design course offered through LSU where they created the game and took top honors in a design competition.
As an LSU student in computer science, Wascom brought his expanding knowledge of high-tech wizardry to the game-making process, but he was quick to give partner Scheurich credit for his contribution to the effort.
"He was the primary artist. I think he probably did as much work as I did. So, most of the actual visual design was his work, where as I did most of the under-the-hood coding work and game play design," Wascom said.
Scheurich, a Baton Rouge Web developer, agreed and felt that together their skills made “Aristeia” a stronger game.
"I come from a traditional art background, and then I got into computers after the fact. So, that kind of lends itself well to stuff like Web design and video game design where you can kind of meld those two media," Scheurich said.
“Aristeia” is a platform-style game in which players progress from level to level by meeting new challenges to survive and achieve each level's task.
"It's mostly about solving puzzles through the abilities of the players,” Wascom explained. “There are some elements that are more action-oriented where it's obvious what you have to do, but you must have the timing and coordination."
The game was unanimously judged to be the best among the design teams of both the LSU and University of Illinois at Chicago class projects competing for the interclass video game honor.
When Scheurich and Wascom demonstrated their game, it reminded me of vintage games like “Joust” or “Super Mario Brothers.” It turns out that this was exactly what they intended. “Aristeia” is basically a two-dimensional game reminiscent of the great video games of the past.
"I think that it was kind of refreshing to a lot of people, because the game was just fun to pick up and play," Scheurich said. "It doesn't look like the most impressive thing out there with big budget Hollywood effects. It's just a fun game to play."
Why did they go retro? Part of the reason was a practical consideration of time. They had only one semester to finish the game as part of the LSU course. Even though team member Josh Mayer handled game sound and Wii remotes, and Devin Ourso made some contributions as part of the student team, one semester is a tough deadline for game creation. Going with a 2-D design simplified the work load.
Scheurich suspects that their two-dimensional design choice also distinguished their game from others in the competition.
"I think we were the only team that did a 2-D game,” Scheurich said. “Everybody else did a 3-D game, trying to incorporate a lot of 3-D elements and make it a 3-D world. We kind of took a step back. We went old school -- 2-D."
LSU Assistant Director for Computing Applications Gabrielle Allen said she was excited to teach the LSU half of the video game design course.
"We have worked with the Center for Computation & Technology and the University of Illinois at Chicago to offer this new Video Game Design course as a first step in building this curriculum," Allen said.
Look for more classes that feed into those skills at LSU. The university recently approved a plan called AVATAR (Arts, Visualization, Advanced Technology and Research) that will bring in new faculty, including teachers in digital art, design and interactive systems.
"Based on the interest in this course, we now want to concentrate on offering the few additional courses that will be needed for a real curriculum," Allen said.
Professor Jason Leigh of the University of Illinois at Chicago helped teach portions of the computer game design course. Leigh taught LSU students via uncompressed video over high speed optical networks. In fact, Allen taught the UIC students through the same connection.
Whether the teacher was actually teaching in a classroom or streaming in from Chicago, Wascom felt the computer game design course really taught him a lot about technical considerations and creative thinking.
"You have to refine, refine and refine before anything is usable in any creative process." Wascom said.
Scheurich and Wascom plan to start their own video game company, which will be called Rustic Games Studio. However, right now, Wascom is working toward finishing his computer science degree at LSU, and Scheurich keeps working as a Web site developer, which includes a post at 2theadvocate.com.
Even though the duo is relatively new to designing computer games, they have opinions about computer game trends and what they hope to change about it given the chance.
"I've noticed that in the video gaming industry, a lot of the focus these days is on what you can do with all this new hardware,” Scheurich said. “As a result of that, I think a lot of games suffer, because designers aren't as much trying to push the envelope in terms of game play as much as they are in terms of what the graphics look like."
Wascom and Scheurich will enter their “Aristeia” game into the PAX 10, a national competition at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle Aug. 29-31. The 10 games judged to be the best in the competition will be showcased at the event.
Want to give these budding game designers tips on how to improve their game for the PAX 10 competition? Log on to www.rusticgames.com and play “Aristeia.” Then e-mail your comments to info@rusticgames.com. Also, if you see any glitches in the game describe them at info@rusticgames.com.
Wascom and Scheurich are also considering starting a Baton Rouge Game Developers group to meet and discuss each other’s projects and ideas. If you are interested in joining them, contact brgd@rusticgames.com for more information.
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