[PRIME] DigiPen playtesting at PAX

lazerbeard

DigiPen student game testing at PAX

What: For those who do not know, DigiPen is a college local to the Seattle area which specializes in the art and science of creating video games. Many of our top games are often showcased in indie/student competitions such as the IGF or PAX 10(This year Tag: The Power of Paint is representing DigiPen at the PAX 10). However there are plenty more games that DigiPen puts out that are worth a play, this year the DigiPen booth will have a selection of those games available.

Why: These are the games which will be entered into such gaming competitions next year. They are near completion, but at the "Beta Testing" phase where input from gamers is crucial. We'd love to have you guys come down, check out some fun games and tell us what you think. People who do so are rewarded with buttons, and an entrance to a raffle, the grand prize is a tour of Valve.

Where: We are up on the 6th floor, nestled between the invisible wall which separates the BYOC area from the Console Freeplay lounge. Here's a map:

When: We will be there all 3 days of PAX, 10:00 AM - 3:00 AM Friday and Saturday, 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM Sunday. Not all games will be shown at the same time. Below is a listing of the games being showcased, and the times you can play them if you are interested in a particular game. If I could find a video of the game, I included that too, I advise viewing fullscreen on HD res if you can, for maximum epicness.

Attack of the 50Ft Robot!: 2:30PM-7:00PM Friday, 2:30PM-7:00PM Saturday

Attack of the 50Ft Robot!

Block Breakers: 2:30PM-7:00PM Saturday, 10:00PM-2:30PM Sunday

Block Breakers

Dreamside Maroon: 10:00PM-2:30PM Friday, 10:00PM-2:30PM Saturday

Dreamside Maroon

GEAR: 10:00PM-2:30PM Friday, 2:30PM-7:00PM Saturday

Gear

Igneous: 2:30PM-7:00PM Friday, 12:00PM-7:00PM Sunday

Igneous

Junk Fighter: 10:00PM-2:30PM Saturday, 10:00PM-2:30PM Sunday

Kabloom: 2:30PM-7:00PM Friday, 12:00PM-7:00PM Sunday

Kabloom

Solar Flare: 10:00PM-2:30PM Saturday, 2:30PM-7:00PM Sunday

Solar Flare

Kinetrix: 10:00PM-2:30PM Friday, 10:00PM-2:30PM Sunday

If you have any comments/questions I'd love to hear them, we really appreciate your input and I'm sure many of you would appreciate a tour of Valve.

If you have comments about a specific game (perhaps you didn't get everything down on a feedback form) I'd love to hear them here, I'll make sure it gets the attention of the appropriate person. I am the graphics programmer for Igneous myself.

parabola

Kabloom's trailer made me laugh. Although it's hard to tell what exactly the gameplay is.

I definitely have interest in Igneous, it looks pretty damn good. Kind of like Audiosurf but instead you're avoiding things.

apotheos

Does Digipen always claim (C) on students' work?

Darc

apotheos wrote: »

Does Digipen always claim (C) on students' work?

Every college does, especially the private ones.

Dreamwriter

Yeah, but look at what can happen with those games copyrighted by Digipen: one Digipen senior year project, Narbacular Drop, was a first-person-view game with a unique idea of solving puzzles by creating magical portals linking one part of a room to another. Valve saw the Digipen game and hired the people who made it to make a very similar game for them: Portal.

RoyceSraphim

If I sent the igneous trailer to the guys over at Exterminatus Now, they would start crying over a game that isn't Sonic having what they want from Sonic.

Must watch other videos

lazerbeard

Thank you! A lot of people have made that comment, we definitely drew inspiration from Sonic. We realized quickly that the fun thing about the game was going fast and dodging stuff, so we made the game as much about that as possible. I would also note (because it is a comment we get about that video) that the capture was taken on the game's "Impossible" difficulty setting. The bridge level in particular doesn't have to be that chaotic(the normal difficulty setting is still quite chaotic and difficult) but I find it to be more fun that way, and it makes for more awesome movies.

As far as the copyright thing... There would be all kinds of problems if one of us seriously tried to get money or use code professionally for something we did for a class as students no matter what. There's all kinds of complications which would go along with that. I can't speak for everyone, but I'm perfectly content to put this out for free anyway, I'm really just happy if you guys play something I make and enjoy yourself.

If some studio thinks it's a great idea and wants to hire a team to make a similar title, DigiPen isn't going to stop them. As Dreamwriter shows, it's free press for DigiPen, and they do want us to do well anyway.

schenksmill

Yes....come visit us....you know you want that Valve tour for helping us out a bit.

50ft Robot is too badass to skip anyway

lazerbeard

Oh, one more thing. If you do not have a pass to the BYOC area, or aren't in the freeplay part. We do have permission to escort people to the DigiPen booth to playtest and back if you are interested. We should have a guy outside the door, if you tell him you want to play some DigiPen games you can get into the area to do so. Just note that we have to escort you back out afterward. Thank you to everyone who played our games so far, we're getting some great feedback!

Zyzzyvas

Thanks to digipen for hosting their tournament where my hilarious only cannons strategy in Solar Flare saw me through to the finals where they switched games on us. Luckily I was able to figure out Block Breakers pretty well after the first round of flailing around pretty hard and won 2 of the next 3 matches to take home the i7 965 prize!

Awesome bunch of games you guys had there, Attack of the 50 ft robot was pretty sweet too. : >