What’s up y’all! My name Is Kristophe Yen, I am a rising Junior at Brown University. I am one of the programmers for Team Batura and am working on Grandpa Run/ Raving Grandpa.
Walking into SIP I was incredibly excited to share the ideas and visions that I had for games that my team and I would potentially work on. It was one of my first times working on a multidisciplinary team and I wanted to contribute in any way that I could. This process did not go the way that I expected. At all. I gravely underestimated how tedious and, at the time, repetitive the brainstorming phase of our games was. Along with the fruition of new and fun ideas that we all wanted to tackle together also came a mountain of rejection. At one point each time we pitched our ideas I walked in being ready to have our idea shut down.
Our team and the visiting 5th graders
I failed to realize why we had to put away so many ideas that we truly believed we could execute. It was not until two distinct moments that I realized the importance of going through such an iterative process to release a successful game: having the 5th graders come in to play our game and having to put away a game that we were excited to work on. At the moment when we put away our first idea for a game that we started working on, it hurt to stop producing a game that we had already put so much work into. But the rejection I faced before showed me the importance of cutting a game short when multiple red flags are pointing toward struggles, we may face in the future. When we had the 5th graders come in, I could not help but be happy when they were excited to play our game, I was able to see all our hard work finally instill joy in someone’s gaming experience, and I could not be more grateful for an experience like that. It was a full-circle moment!
An older build vs the most recent
I am not sure if it’s because I am a programmer, so I have become detached from reality after staring at my computer all the time, but I am a thorough believer in magic. Due to this role, I often feel the need to execute a vision perfectly. As a programmer with a team relying on you, you want to make sure that you can make the dreams of all your teammates come true. Writing this out I guess I have taken the guise of fairy godmother unprovoked, huh?
SIP has introduced me to many struggles but has also introduced me to a strong support system. I am eternally grateful for the opportunity and people I have met in the program as professionals and as friends. Walking forward I hope to release a game that we will all be proud of, and I promise none of the teams will disappoint, the work that they have all put in will speak volumes once the games are released. Tune in because SIP22 will shake the table!
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Join us on August 4 from 2-4pm at WPI for our annual SIP Open House! Free, fun and open to all. RSVP here!
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Hear MassDigi’s Tim Loew on panel at The Ocean State of Play 2.0. Free and open to all. RSVP here.
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SIP demo day open invited guests beginning at 4p followed by a private event. Contact us for more information.
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Heyhey! My name is Evelyn Tan and I’m a rising senior in Illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design. I am currently working with Team Samosa as Lead Artist for a time management reverse cat cafe game.
This week, we were visited by a wee hoard of 5th graders who helped us playtest our games. Even though our builds are still very rough, it was so rewarding to see them responding to the game and getting invested in the gameplay loop. The kids were super responsive, and offered tons of feedback both verbally and also through their gameplays–watching them play allowed us to identify areas of ambiguity within the loop, and also plenty of opportunities to add ‘the juice’ to the art. (If any of y’all are reading this, thank you so much! <3) I know I’m making myself seem old here, but it was also so great to see them experience a taste of the childhood joys of our main comp–the flash game known as Penguin Diner.
SIP so far has been an incredibly unique experience–I’ve had group projects at RISD but have never developed a project of this scale. Communication has been an integral part to the group process, but creating and completing plans on the Kanban as a group has been very satisfying. On the arts side, I’ve learned a lot about the unification of style and the importance of establishing brush settings and color palettes. Though there are certainly challenges in the development process, it has so far been a lot of fun. It’s also so wonderful to be able to walk around the Innovation studio and see these games come into fruition–I’ve found many times that aesthetic issues within our game were resolved very quickly with the insights from other teams, and it’s always great when teams do the same and we can get a little sneak peak of what they are up to.
I’m so excited to see how all of these games progress and evolve, and can’t wait to download and play them at the end! In the meantime, we will be returning to the drawing board. Thank you so much WPI for hosting us and also a big thank you to the SIP team and team Samosa for being such great teammates <33
(^I promise they will be reassembled later)
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My name is Ryan Normand, I’m a Game Design student from Fitchburg State University in SIP working with Team Naan as a Producer and Artist.
We’re over 3 weeks into things, and after transitioning from a virtual on-boarding period to in-person dirty builds and arduous concepting, I can definitively say it has been a whirlwind of a process. Functioning online with my team was never particularly difficult, but there are always those hiccups in video meetings that come with working from home—wifi connectivity issues, accidentally being muted, people talking over each other, dogs desperately begging for attention (thanks, Riley). Nothing new to us all after the past 2 years, but that experience has made this week of working in-person with everyone all the better and more rewarding.
One thing I underestimated was the value of working in the same area as all the other teams. At my university, I’ve worked in classrooms where several teams are all working on separate projects, but it’s never been quite like this; perhaps it’s the fact that we’re not students here, but instead are professionals. Well, maybe not professionals yet, but that doesn’t stop us from trying to come close.
In all seriousness though, being able to get up and actively look at what your team is working on is an insanely valuable experience, whether it’s that moment when a programmer gets that script finally debugged and the game looks a step closer to what you all imagined, or when they don’t and you all have a laugh at the funny thing that happens instead (sorry, programmers).
This experience isn’t exclusive to your team though: getting up to see what other teams are working on, as long as you aren’t totally interrupting them, is also a very constructive experience. I know without a doubt that every team has benefited from gathering input from others in the space around them, especially as all our minds are deep in game-design mode. And on that note, wish us luck as we continue to try our hardest and head into the many many stages of production!
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Hey there, my name is Brendan Horack. This summer I’m heading up marketing for SIP along with some other management/ coordination stuff. I’m a production focused IMGD student at WPI.
SIP 2022 has begun and the teams are all working diligently to refine ideas and find inspiration for the amazing games that they will make over the course of this summer. I’ve been sitting in with every group and have had the opportunity to see distinct styles of organization, ideation, leadership, and more. That being said, I think they are all acclimating well to their teams after some brief orientation. Some teams are working with word clouds, and some have made mood boards. They have come up with a wide range of concepts with all sorts of unique themes. None of the ideas are final, but the teams have shown a lot of promise.
Mood board – Team Naan
My experience has been a bit different than the others due to the nature of my role and my responsibilities. As I said, I spent some time sitting in with the different groups to hear and see what they were working on. However, while I was observing them work, I was working on preparing details and plans for our marketing goals and setting up some exciting guests and other experiences for us throughout the summer. We have some plans for SIP alumni, local developers, and more. I’m looking forward to sharing the happenings with everyone on all our social media platforms. Check those out if you get the chance.
Concept art – Team Channa
We were online for the first two weeks, but it seems like move-in went relatively well. We are hosting SIP at WPI for the first time and are experiencing understandable hiccups, but everyone was excited to get moved in and take advantage of the cool facilities the campus has to offer. Stay tuned for more as we work towards releasing some awesome games!
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SIP22 team selected
By Timothy Loew, Executive Director
Since 2012, applications to our Summer Innovation Program (SIP) have grown year over year in terms of quality, geography, major and diversity. This time around we received applications from 251 undergraduate and graduate students representing 71 colleges and universities from around the world making it, once again, one of our most competitive year ever.
Choosing only 25 as interns was very challenging. After many hours, we selected a really talented group. This summer’s SIP22 team will be made up of interns from 12 institutions including Berklee, Brown, Clark, Fitchburg State, Lesley, Northeastern, Quinnipiac, RPI, RISD, RIT, WIT and WPI.
SIP22 begins on May 17 and concludes on August 5. Over those 11 weeks or so, with guidance from staff and industry mentors, SIP22 teams will be responsible for all the work necessary to prepare a game for launch. Simply put, there is no internship program like it in the world.
Like last year, there’s still a pandemic on so we may be impacted by that again. In addition, this will be our first summer running SIP entirely at WPI and expect a few wrinkles with that, too. The world may still be a bit messy right now but we are adjusting to create the best program and greatest experience ever – and we can’t wait to get started.
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Join us on Zoom at 4p on April 27 for a talk by Warren Spector. Please contact us for the link.
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Play our games! Drop by our booth, #12100, and say hi!
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