MassDigi was founded with the goal of nurturing and growing the Massachusetts digital games ecosystem. Since our establishment in 2011, we’ve worked with hundreds of students from colleges and universities across the US, Canada, Ireland and elsewhere, published over 60 games, met with dozens of of studios and startups, and supported many conferences and events.
MassDigi is now making WPI its permanent home. At WPI, we’ve found an institutional home that aligns well with our mission through its focus on project-based learning and its thriving games and interactive media program. We’ve always been driven by our focus on workforce development, creating professional opportunities for students and young professionals, and showcasing the amazing work with games and interactive media happening all across the Commonwealth. Though Tim and Monty are now stepping back from their full time role with MassDigi, they will stay on in an advisory capacity, and our mission remains the same. And they will both stay involved in the Summer Innovation Program – we hope to open applications for SIP toward the end of January.
Stay tuned for new things in the new year, as well as some old things, reimagined.
Onward to the next decade of MassDigi!
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Join us in Worcester in May 2024 for the International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG) invites any-and-all research contributions that advance the study, understanding, and knowledge of digital games. From traditional academic submissions to interactive playable experiences, to panel proposals, doctoral consortium applications, and beyond, FDG strives to provide a welcoming home for all types of games scholarship. For more information about FDG, please click here.
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If you’re in the area next Thursday, December 7th, please join us at WPI Seaport for the Boston Game Dev Holiday Party. Mostly a social event, the party will also have a couple of spots open for casual demos. In addition to the people, we’ll have snacks and a cash bar. RSVP on meetup.com here.
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On October 19, 2010 an impressive group of people from across the game industry, higher education and the public sector gathered in Worcester for an event called “MASS Impact: Video Games, Economic Development & Job Creation” to kick around an idea – and that idea became Massachusetts Digital Games Institute. After that event, a steering committee was formed, another meeting was held and MassDigi was formally launched at an event on April 26, 2011. The rest is history.
Original logo, 2011
Over the years, we’ve tried many things, some more successfully than others, made changes and adjustments, started up efforts and wound down some but we’ve always kept a primary focus on students, jobs and the games community. And, as we begin our 14th year, with change as a constant, that approach and that focus remains.
MASS Impact event flyer, October 19, 2010
Video game institute unveiled in Worcester, April 26, 2011
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Merge Monastery, a free, fun merge game, is available for download now at Google Play.
Stuck in an emotionally hard place, you stumble upon an old garden corrupted by bitter emotions that needs a bit of pruning, love, and care.
The world could use a little more positivity, and what better way to represent that idea than by growing happiness through the literal fruits of your labor?
The mobile game was created during the first-ever 2023 MassDigi Summer Studio program by a core development team of Clark University students including Maxwell Xavier, Jay Lam, Wednesday D’Angelo, Ismail Alatise, Alona Yeganova, David MacRae, Emily Clewes, Charles Marble, RJ Anthony, Tyler Gaughan, Ed Greig, Porter Orvetti and Chenxi Gao.
Watch the trailer here and download Merge Monastery today for Android!
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Milo’s Magical Adventure, a free, fun platformer game, is available for download now on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Tumble and flap through a magical world as a baby dragon trying to find its mom.
Milo, a plucky young dragon, has a problem: their mom has gone missing! Take off on a quest to find out what happened to her, as you navigate the terrain of an enchanted world. Scamper through forests and villages, using your wits to avoid the many hazards of the realm.
The mobile game was created during the 2023 MassDigi Summer Innovation Program (SIP) by students Selina Mailman from Acadia, Abi Rauch from WPI, Luke Colburn from Brown, Henry Cecchini from Vassar, Jess Stutman from MassArt, Alma Clark from Amherst and Brandon Zongora from Berklee.
Watch the trailer here and download Milo’s Magical Adventure today for iOS and Android!
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Aliens Want Our Mascot?!, a free, fun strategy game, is available for download now on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Your beloved high school mascot, Bovis the Bovine, is under attack! Collect school spirit, rally students to your cause, and annihilate the alien threat in this grid-based tower defense game.
Bovine High may be your typical high school, but every student you recruit is more than just a cliche. Though their abilities and extracurriculars may be different, they all swear undying devotion to their school mascot, so it’s up to you to rally the troops and defend them. Choose your placements wisely, combine different cliques, and defeat the extraterrestrial threat before the next bell!
The mobile game was created during the 2023 MassDigi Summer Innovation Program (SIP) by students Nick Frangie from WPI, Adam Ying from RISD, Asher Uman from Smith, Tommy Hu from NYU, Jacob Czerepica from Clark, Jessica Liano and Brandon Zongora from Berklee.
Watch the trailer here and download Aliens Want Our Mascot?! today for iOS and Android!
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Rock On, Raccoon!, a free, fun rhythm game, is available for download now on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Battle other animal groups as a raccoon garage band in this mobile rhythm title!
The game was created during the 2023 MassDigi Summer Innovation Program (SIP) by students Noah Bunis from Brandeis, Jade McEvoy from WPI, Amanda Rowe from RIT, James Robinson from Acadia, Sage Rebello from Cornell, Kate Tsai from RISD and Brandon Zongora from Berklee.
Watch the trailer here and download Rock On, Raccoon! today for iOS and Android!
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Rodent Rampage, a free, fun scrolling adventure game, is available for download now on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Watch out for this acorn aviator! When it comes to acorn selection, it’s do or starve, and S.Q. Tailblazer sure ain’t gonna starve! This year you have a plan… As seen on tv, everything’s better with a jetpack. Lucky for you, not everyone remembers to lock their shed – and there’s a leaf blower inside with your name on it. Good thing you stole that engineering degree!
The mobile game was created during the 2023 MassDigi Summer Innovation Program (SIP) by students Jericho Dibb from MassArt -> Gnomon, Alexandra Mintz from WPI, Elisha Kelley from Clark, Alice Han from BU, Kerri Thornton from WPI, Marlaine Hanna from Northeastern and Brandon Zongora from Berklee.
Watch the trailer here and download Rodent Rampage today for iOS and Android!
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SIP explores role of generative AI
Students level up to find evolving industry
Draft – by Jon Cain, WPI
When WPI interactive media and game development major Kerri Thornton found out that she would be expected to consider using generative artificial intelligence (AI) during her on-campus summer internship in video game development, she was skeptical. “Honestly, my first reaction was ‘oh no! I know where this is going,’” the rising senior at WPI says, “and it’s not somewhere I want to be dipping my toe, because I know there’s a lot of controversy surrounding AI and the ethics surrounding it.”
Thornton is one of 26 college students from 16 schools spending 11 weeks at WPI as interns in the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute (MassDigi) Summer Innovation Program (SIP). MassDigi is a WPI-based center for entrepreneurship, academic cooperation, and economic development across the Massachusetts games ecosystem. SIP interns include students of computer science, game design, art, and music. Each of the four teams in the program spends the summer making a video game, from conceptualizing a prototype to presenting a final product. Along the way, they learn how to work as a team, manage project deadlines, and receive feedback and mentorship.
This year, the program’s leaders asked participants to consider using generative AI in the pre-production stage of brainstorming ideas. The technology uses deep learning to create text, programming code, images, and graphics after a person gives it prompts and parameters. Monty Sharma, Managing Director of MassDigi, asked this cohort to try out AI because companies are using it in game development. “It’s there, and the students ought to be able to use it,” Sharma says. “This is a technology that is immediately useful to a lot of people. We’re in a tech business and you need to spend your life looking forward.”
Despite her concerns about AI, Thornton used generative AI to create a graphic of a gnome as she brainstormed artwork ideas for her team’s game. She says the gnome didn’t look quite right. It was missing an arm, for one thing. Because of the limitations of generative AI, Thornton says “it seems to help with visualizing things in concept more than actual image creation.”
She thinks generative AI will become more capable and, if copyright issues are resolved, could help artists save time with repetitive tasks so they can focus on their most creative work. She hopes to try a new AI tool that starts with a pool of open-source photos and then promises to create a graphic that adjusts for changeable lighting conditions. For example, it could make a character graphic for midday sunlight in a field, and another version of the character for dusk in a forest.
Another SIP participant, James Robinson of Acadia University in Nova Scotia, used generative AI to create new code for his team’s game. He also used it to identify problems in existing code. The rising senior and computer science major says the tool saved him time by using predictive text to generate suggestions for completed code that appears repeatedly in the game. However, he says the AI makes mistakes, so it requires a knowledgeable operator. “One of the misconceptions is that AI is just doing the work of the programmer. But that’s not the case,” Robinson says. “It’s a tool programmers can utilize only if they understand the code they’re trying to make.”
As the program participants try AI, MassDigi and WPI’s IMGD program are eager to learn from the students’ experiences. Leaders with MassDigi will ask the interns for feedback on generative AI after the program ends in August. Josiah Boucher, a PhD student in IMGD who studies the ethics of generative AI, is also interviewing the SIP participants during the program about what is and is not working, and their concerns. “We haven’t fully identified from an academic research perspective the potential harms and benefits,” Boucher says of the technology. “The only thing that is certain is that it is going to change things somehow.”
Gillian Smith, director of IMGD, says faculty will use the feedback from the SIP interns as they consider how to further incorporate generative AI into their curriculum at WPI. The IMGD degree program has courses on the ethics of generative AI and its use in interactive media and games.
Smith says it’s important for WPI students to be “AI ready,” so they’re prepared to enter the workforce and to think critically about the capabilities and limits of the technology. “Being able to understand the role of generative AI requires being able to think about it from a lot of different angles,” Smith says. “What does it mean for future careers? What are the ethical and social implications of adopting these kinds of technologies? I’m excited about WPI’s IMGD program being a place where we can help people think that through.”
Thornton says this summer’s experience has made generative AI seem less scary, and she feels better prepared to interview with or work for an employer that wants someone with AI skills. She wants to work in the games industry developing character art, and she has mixed feelings about how the technology could affect the field.
“One of the great things that humans have been able to do over time is make art. I don’t think generative AI will erase people making art. I do think it’s going to change the way we make art,” Thornton says. “My main concern is that people will come to view art as less process and more product.”
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