ECU students level up video game development skills

It’s all fun and games until the dragon kills you.

Of course, if you hit the restart button, the fun and games can begin again.

Such is the world of video and computer games, where you can get Mario to the finish line, build civilizations and slay fire-breathing dragons — if you’re good enough.

Emma Harrell, left, and Alicia Ramirez Cruz show video game animation techniques during a meeting of the video game development student organization.

With nearly two-thirds of Americans playing video games on a regular basis according to the Entertainment Software Association, gaming is a big part of today’s culture.

“It’s something everybody’s aware of,” said Dawson Dietrick, a junior computer science major who leads the East Carolina University video game development student organization. “It’s something they know and they like, but actually, making it is really fun.”

ECU students interested in developing the next great video game can join the club or take courses toward a computer game development certificate.

The goal of the club is to teach and encourage game development, providing a platform for those who enjoy video games to network, share ideas and create their own video or computer games.

Though the club falls under the Department of Computer Science, it includes more than just computer science and software engineering majors. Music majors help create the scores that are such an important part of video games. And while programmers create the code to make characters move, animation and design students develop the looks of characters and the scenes around them through various design and modeling software.

“The club has been able to pull interest across campus, with students coming from computer science, art, design and other disciplines,” said Dr. David Hart, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and the club’s faculty advisor. “The students learn from each other as they work together on game projects. They’ve already been able to make some great things, and it will be fun to see what the students come up with in the future.”

Club member Emma Harrell is a Bachelor of Fine Arts student with an emphasis in animation/interactive design.

“I’ve always had an interest in games and the art side of things,” said Harrell, a junior from Archdale. “I originally was going to be an illustrator, and then after talking with the animation people, I got more into game development. We get to meet people who aren’t just in the art building. We get the chance to talk with coders, so this gives us a great opportunity to talk to people who’d be in the same industry as us.”

Harrell and classmate Alicia Ramirez Cruz, a junior BFA animation/interactive design student from Siler City, help instruct club members on the use of animation software during meetings.

“I was just doing this for fun, but then I got sucked into just the creative process,” Cruz said. “It’s just about how fun it is to get an idea on paper and then create it, especially 3D modeling, which I’ve been loving so much.”

Students work on a project during a video game development club meeting.

With characters and scenes created, movement in the game requires the programmers to write code, which Dietrick said starts simply.

“If you want a character that moves around, you press a button and then it waves, it’s a couple lines of code — check if the button’s being pressed and execute this animation. It doesn’t take much at all,” Dietrick said. “The complication comes from integrating everything into this big game system, and you start getting line after line of code, trying to get all this stuff to come together, making sure you can’t do something at this time, but you can do it at this time. That’s where the complexity starts.”

He believes the club has helped him as a computer science major.

“I don’t think I ever really would have gotten into programming as well as I have at this point in time if it wasn’t for going into game development,” he said. “Where I am now, I feel like I could branch into anything programming-wise, just because of the foundation I feel like I built for myself doing game development.”

ECU’s computer game development certificate prepares students to design and develop computer games and simulations through technical skills and concepts in story, character, environment, design, user interface and sound augmentation.

As part of a class project a few years ago, students created a game called Chicken Dodge that placed second at a national game development conference.

“In the past few years, the department has seen a surge of interest in our computer graphics and game development courses,” Hart said. “Students are passionate about the topic, and it is fun to see their joy as they see their ideas come to life on the screen. The computer game development certificate has been a fantastic way for students to receive tangible recognition for the skills they gain in these courses.”

Dietrick’s goal is to run a game development studio or become a game developer. He believes ECU’s computer science program, its certificate and game development club will provide him that path forward.

“Game development was more of a way to get into the programming,” Dietrick said. “I always thought that’s the best career ever, but game development is something that I do all the time. I play games all the time. And if I made a game and was able to immediately commercialize it, it’s something that I see immediate results from.”

Students interested in the video game development club can view its page on the Pirate Experience website or email Hart.