Students Create Games with Industry Insight to Hone Professional Skills in Game Jam + Hackathon
(From L): ECU students Emily Qiang, Sarah Huet and Chloe Jun demonstrate their team's virtual-reality game, One More Moment, during the INTD hackathon. (Photo by Perrin Grauer)
Posted on
The curricular hackathon, which provides work-integrated learning while students earn degree credits, is part of the Technology Pathways for Creative Futures program.
A recent game jam and hackathon in a third-year Interaction Design course at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECU) saw students create vibrant, impactful games with guidance from faculty and industry professionals.
The four-week intensive tasked students with responding to a prompt created by staff at gaming companies Buffalo Buffalo and Electronic Arts (EA) in collaboration with ECU faculty member and alum Siddhant (Sid) Singh (MDes 2024).
“I learned so much, but it was also challenging,” says third-year Interaction Design student Chloe Jun. Chloe and her teammates created a virtual-reality game, One More Moment, which helps users process grief after losing a beloved pet.
Chloe notes the value of having outside experts in the room during the ideation and pitching phases, where teams received insights on game development and presentation.
“It’s great to connect with professionals to get critical feedback,” she continues. “That was helpful for understanding what’s happening in the gaming industry.”
Screenshots by Emily Qiang from the teaser for her team's game, One More Moment. (Images courtesy Emily Qiang + Chloe Jun)
The hackathon was part of Technology Pathways for Creative Futures, an initiative from the Shumka Centre for Creative Entrepreneurship at ECU in collaboration with DigiBC. The program aims to increase capacity in the information and communications technology sector. It addresses the growing need for highly qualified personnel who can bridge creative design and emerging technologies by connecting industry with future workers.
Technology Pathways is funded in partnership with the Business + Higher Education Roundtable and with support from the Government of Canada.
Faculty member Sid Singh says the hackathon brings an ideal model for real-world learning into the classroom. Meanwhile, including professionals from different corners of the gaming world allows students to see the diversity of the sector.
“When you’re building practices that need to reflect how the industry works, these kinds of ventures give students an opportunity to be in touch with the world they’re going to step into,” Sid says. “When people from outside the university bring their unique experiences, students get different brains to pick. And there was incredible synergy in the classroom. Students stepped into their full potential, creating games that are well-informed, intentional and demonstrate real purpose.”
Sunny Lee, head of experience design at EA - Full Circle, watches final presentations during the hackathon. (Photo by Perrin Grauer)
Sunny Lee is head of experience design at EA - Full Circle. She says the students showed exceptional skill in tackling a wide variety of challenges.
“They made an exponential jump from when we first consulted with them,” Sunny says. “They took an inventive approach to how they used tools and resources to create their projects. And then there were invisible components like navigating team dynamics and personalities. Sometimes, you don’t see eye to eye, but how you reach common ground says a lot. And I was impressed with what the students were able to do and how transferable their work was in terms of what I see in the industry.”
Third-year Interaction Design student Matin Rahimi has previous work experience in graphic, brand and communication design, and as an entrepreneur. His team created a 2D-platformer video game called Event Horizon. He emphasizes the value of expert input from Sid and the industry guests, adding what he learned helped illuminate where he’d like to take his career after graduation.
“It was a great experience to hear different types of feedback from each of the companies. That was something we couldn’t get anywhere else,” he says. “It was also valuable to understand how to identify what is essential to achieve our best work on a tight timeline. It helped me realize what type of work environment I’d prefer to work in or even create in the future.”
(From L): ECU students Terrence Ho, Matin Rahimi and Frisk Wu present Event Horizon. (Photo by Perrin Grauer)
Ken Ha is the art director for Buffalo Buffalo. He says the students displayed a job-ready professionalism throughout the game development process.
“They showed they can pivot properly, hone their vision and make things significantly simpler while still communicating their idea,” Ken says. “Some of these presentations were clear to the point of being only a few steps away from a pitch to potential investors. They were nearly business viable. These students demonstrated the skillsets I look for when hiring someone onto a team. We’ve even made contacts that might lead to co-op positions or something similar.”
Visit the Shumka Centre online to learn more about Technology Pathways for Creative Futures.