FIEA students pitch Capstone projects

As students are scrambling to study for finals, the graduate students from the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy in downtown Orlando are getting ready to pitch and produce their own video game designs for their Capstone project. 

This event took place at noon on Friday at UCF's Center for Emerging Media.

A group of 10 students were chosen by their peers to present their video game designs to get the "green light" for production. Both students and faculty had the opportunity to choose the best pitches they feel are the most exciting, creative and feasible to work on in a six to seven month time frame.

Similar to a portfolio, the pitches that were chosen to go to production offer the opportunity for students to gain hands on experience in their field of production.

Many audience members included faculty as well as previous classes, or "cohorts," that have returned to see the creativity of the next graduating class.

FIEA cohort 7 graduate Andrew Erdal was very enthusiastic to come back and see the next round of Capstone game presentations.

"It's a little bit exciting seeing the ideas people come up with, coming out of it from last year, " Erdal said. "Everybody's ambitious and has cool ideas. It's fun to see what everyone else comes up with and how they can execute it."

Each game presented the audience with a different aspect of gaming. The pitch for "Penned" offers an educational gaming experience for higher education, while "Apocalypse Valley" was the first pitch from FIEA that introduced the possibility of casual gaming using Facebook.

FIEA art track student Chris Russell was very impressed with the diversity among the pitches.

"They don't just want to make a standard game; they really want to try new things. It was courageous. A lot of people took chances and I think it paid off."

Admissions and communications director Todd Deery noticed the same trend.

"A lot of people are thinking beyond the standard set up of what's going on right now and a little more about what's possible in the future-- it's great."

After each pitch, audience members were encouraged to ask questions about the different programing concepts and style ideas. Many members expressed interest in expanding upon those ideas to improve the quality of the game.

"There were interesting questions asked and it wasn't just our previous cohorts. I think everyone has something to say, some were very bold," Russell said.

FIEA production track student Emily Krebs believes that she gained some valuable insight to add to the final production of her pitch.

"I was flattered that there were so many outside ideas. It showed that there was some real interest in it. They brought up points that I didn't think of and that will only help in developing my ideas even more."

Despite having to choose a small number of pitches for production, Deery was proud of the pitches presented by each of the students.

"I think this was the strongest batch of pitches at FIEA that we've ever seen."

This year, five out of the ten got the "green light" for production.

"Plushy Knight," presented by Blake Battle, received an overwhelming emotional feedback from the audience. It's set after the earthquake in Japan this year. The protagonist lost both parents in the quake and goes into a deep coma, rejecting the realities of the outside world. While in her coma, she meets her stuffed bear, encouraging her to accept what had happened and wake up. Upon completion of the game, players have the option of donating to the American Red Cross's Disaster Relief program.

"I feel that my game offers the best opportunity to participate in the story and to use that impact that you can have on people to make positive changes in people's lives."

Four other students received the "green light" on their pitches as well.

Emily Krebs's "Penned" showed a different perspective of gaming. This game was centered on providing an educational aspect to a game aimed at those in higher education. Using new vocabulary words to influence the environment around you, the player has to make choices in the game going from book to book and experiencing the world inside it.

For a more epic and cartoony game, Nathan Yelle's "1st Edition" brings out the nostalgic memories of the inner child. Where the world of comic books can come to life, the player dons a superhero outfit and tries to retrieve stolen first edition comic books from the school bully.

For a more casual gaming experience, Charlyn Chisholm offers "Apocalypse Valley" for Facebook. This game lets the player oversee a small village that they have to protect from disasters that occur to get rewards. Even though the point is to protect the village, players can also wreak a bit of havoc and "play God" in a sense.

"Battle Fortress Tortoise," pitched by Gabe Gonzalez, is about trust, survival and strategy. The player is a gnome living in a village. The village, however, is on the back of an ancient giant tortoise. Every 1,000 years, they must journey to their breeding grounds to mate. The goal of the game is to get to the breeding grounds as quickly as possible without facing too much injury from attacks along the way.