Outside the Box: USC Student Competition Draws Video Game Innovation

  • The electronic game industry is looking to student projects for innovation.
  • Nearly 160 students showcased eight semester-long game projects to an audience of industry professionals at USC’s Demo Day.
  • “It was the 13th time students have publicly exhibited their work but the first jointly planned effort between USC’s School of Cinematic Arts’ interactive media division and its Viterbi School of Engineering’s department of computer science,” reports the Los Angeles Times. “The two schools have offered an advanced games class together since 2007.”
  • “The great thing about having students make games in academia is that they can think outside of the boxes that the commercial industry is bound by,” explains Michael Zyda, director of USC’s GamePipe Laboratory. “When the commercial industry invests in a new title, they have to get a huge return. Students can take big risks. It’s an interesting model for innovation.”
  • Zyda keeps track of his students after they leave GamePipe and “estimates that alumni have developed games that have reached more than 375 million players.”

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