Don’t let the bedbugs bite: Midnight Terrors hits stores
By Tim Loew, executive director, MassDiGI
Midnight Terrors, a free, fun and challenging tower defense game released today on the App Store and Google Play, came from the imagination of Joe Lajoie in May 2014. At that time, Joe, a Becker College student (now alumnus), was an intern in our annual MassDiGI Summer Innovation Program (SIP). After successfully pitching his idea about a boy named Casey and his toys to the rest of SIP, he along with talented students Renzo Heredia from Berklee, Loren Sherman from MIT, Ning Xie from Mt. Holyoke, Benji Smith from Northeastern and Aromie Kim from Tufts teamed up to make the game a reality.
Working together over that summer, the team, using Unity, produced a high-quality game (watch the terrific trailer here) which, during a demo at Boston TechJam, caught the attention of New York City-based game publisher Thumbspire. From there, partnering with Thumbspire, we brought Midnight Terrors into our LiveCode Studio program at Becker during the 14/15 academic year. Through LiveCode, many more students from Becker as well as RISD, Hampshire and WPI had roles in the further development of the game, winning awards and polishing it to the point where it was tested in international markets.
This fall, the 15/16 LiveCode launch team, a group of students from across a range disciplines, put the final touches on Midnight Terrors and it is now available to download for iOS and Android.
It has been a busy semester for the launch team which pushed out Limbs (Google Play, App Store), another SIP14 and LiveCode 14/15 & 15/16 title, in October and, working with Thumbspire, has Hibachi Hero, a SIP15 and LiveCode 15/16 title, slated to hit the stores on December 17.
Update: Click here to read the Worcester Telegram’s December 8 story on the Midnight Terrors launch.
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“Amid the unstoppable growth of the multibillion-dollar gaming industry around the world, the state government of Massachusetts joined forces with schools and businesses to establish the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute (MassDiGI) four years ago.” Read the full story at GMI Post here.
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Join MassDiGI’s Monty Sharma at MDH on January 27 in New York. More info here.
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Catch our 12:30 pm panel “Game devs: The next generation” featuring SIP15 alumni Veronica Ni (RISD), Ari Green (MIT), Rejon Taylor-Foster (Becker) and Rachel Burton (WPI) at the Boston Festival of Indie Games FIG Talks at Microsoft New England in Cambridge on January 16. Schedule here. Registration information here.
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Join us on January 10, 2016 at The Quarters in Hadley for the PVGD Make Talk Play Meetup! Details forthcoming.
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Come meet fellow game makers, researchers and funders in Washington, DC. The Federal Games Working Group (FGG) and the Higher Education Video Game Alliance (HEVGA) have joined forces to convene the first ever Games + Higher Education + National Impact Event in Washington, DC on December 10-11, 2015. More information here.
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Take this, please: 2015/16 Mass. game industry survey
By Tim Loew, executive director, MassDiGI
A few years ago we launched our first survey of the Mass. game industry. We learned quite a bit. We hope to learn more this time around, too.
That said, I’d like to thank all the survey respondents in advance – be they companies, studios, divisions, universities, hobbyists, non-profits, indies, schools, departments, colleges, etc. The information you provide in the 2015/16 Mass. Game Industry Cluster Census & Econometric Survey is critical in helping understand aggregate workforce, business, education and technology trends while providing the statistical foundation for expected biennial comparisons as well as ongoing efforts to attract talent, grow the sector and build alignment across industry, academia and government. Confidentiality is assured. Only aggregate data will be reported.
- Take two minutes and take the survey – click here!
I’d also like to thank Prof. Pacey Foster at UMass Boston and the folks at the UMass Donahue Institute for there invaluable assistance.
I encourage you to share the survey link with anyone and everyone in your network. The more data, the merrier.
Survey link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1y1bAAVNM_EPz1pt5CgEWUhRASN6GOBuDMVcZWKcbrck/viewform
The survey will remain open through January. Results are expected to be announced soon thereafter.
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Drop by our booth at !Atrevete! Exploring STEM College and Career Expo on campus at Worcester State University. Information here.
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Leadership Worcester’s Economic Development Session II will feature panels including MassDiGI. More information can be found here.
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Join us on campus at Mt. Holyoke College for HackHolyoke! Information here.
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Working together over that summer, the team, using Unity, produced a high-quality game (watch the terrific trailer here) which, during a demo at Boston TechJam, caught the attention of New York City-based game publisher Thumbspire. From there, partnering with Thumbspire, we brought Midnight Terrors into our LiveCode Studio program at Becker during the 14/15 academic year. Through LiveCode, many more students from Becker as well as RISD, Hampshire and WPI had roles in the further development of the game, winning awards and polishing it to the point where it was tested in international markets.
