The ESA Foundation (ESAF) has awarded the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute (MassDiGI) at Becker College a $25,000 grant to expand high school student participation in the annual MassDiGI Game Challenge and launch MassDiGI 101, a series of mini workshops focused on game design and development.
Read the full press release here or read the stories at Game Politics, Go Local Worcester, Boston Herald, Worcester Telegram and Worcester Business Journal.
For all the details on the 2014 Game Challenge please click here!
When: March 7 & 8, 2014
Where: Microsoft NERD Center, Cambridge, MA
Please join MassDiGI and friends at The Venture Forum’s Innovation Fair. Further information can be found here.
When: January 14, 2014, 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Where: Rubin Campus Center, WPI
Drop by and hear Jamie Gotch from Subatomic Studios (makers of Fieldrunners) talk games and more. Students and the public are welcome. This event is organized by the Becker College IGDA Chapter.
When: December 6, 2013, 6 p.m.
Where: Becker College, Weller Academic Building, 61 Sever St., Room 210, Worcester, MA
You’ve got to be able to network with professionals in the industry, communicate effectively, and know what the studio wants. Come meet Marc Girolimetti, founder of Red Raider Studios, who will be on campus presenting to game students on:
Perfecting Your Pitch and Face-to-Face Networking in Gaming
All area students are welcome.
When: Thursday, November 21, Noon – 1:00p
Where: Becker College, 80 William Street, Worcester, MA 01609
For more information, click here.
A meaningful experience
By Jake Farrago, senior, Becker College
Look at a painting. Read a book. Listen to a song. Do any of these activities and by the conclusion of them, it’s highly unlikely that the incessant stream of thoughts we call the human mind will be concerned with the pricing model, longevity, or format of said subject. No, what matters to each and everyone of us in the immediate aftermath of any of the aforementioned events is whether we can deem it as having been a meaningful experience. But, what is that exactly? How can one even begin to understand that vague abstraction, especially because when in the throes of it, in the tightest embrace of that feeling, most find themselves speechless and literally unable to describe it.
This rumination is hardly a new one, nor an unexplored one. Industries that churn and steam without pause spend every moment of their existence attempting to understand the aspects of this phenomenon. After all, there is big money involved in cracking the code behind its inner workings. Big egos too. Everyone wants to be known as the charmer who can induce people into a state of temporary engrossment amid the thrashings of a busy life, the luminary who can lower the barriers of a rigid mindset and deliver unto it new meaning. But the reality of the situation is that no matter how much we may covet or transact with those who have been accepted as having this skill, their roles are inherently that of an incomplete one. Much like a magician who reaches his hand into the hat and returns with it sans rabbit, the act is nothing short of crippled without the proper pieces present. But, if it’s established that those who conceive of and create these meaningful experiences that we ingest are, indeed, one part of the equation, who or what is the mysterious other half? Me. You. Us. And, no medium in human history to date has the potential to make this truth clearer than that of video games.
There is not a single medium of art that is truly a “passive” experience. That is to say, regardless of how little response we may give the stroke of a brush or the lick of a melody, we are fundamentally still engaging with it by perceiving it. However, video games have, and continue to make, this notion more and more explicit. For, in a video game, the subject-object relationship is never more apparent. In order to take an experience from a video game, we must in turn give our experience to it. And, this is where things start to get interesting. Since video games are not birthed in a vacuum, but are instead created by beings just like ourselves, they inherit traits from both parties responsible in this interchange. Meaning, the essences of both creator and the consumer are what makes a video game. Yet, this still fails to solve the initial question posed in this roundabout frustration of an article. If video games are, thus far, the pinnacle of an artistic and entertaining experience, how then does this translate into understanding the consistency of a meaningful one? Why, the answer to the enigma is only but a skip across the proverbial pond.
While a basic experience is simply the act of both a creator and a consumer giving presence to an object, a meaningful experience is that in which both parties each give a piece of their very soul to it. Not to sound eerie, or, even worse, grandiose about it, but that’s the formula. It’s not really that complicated. It does not require hundreds of thousands of hours of quality assurance, or a deluge of slick marketing (although it may indeed include all that). It simply needs a pure, untarnished, part of ourselves. Sometimes it only takes one half of the birthing duo to realize this end, but, overall, it’s so much more potent when it comes from both parents. For, it’s only then when you immerse yourself in a video game that you feel yourself being enriched for it. It’s only then when you go to sleep at night that you are contented by that which you had a hand in making during your spent day. Video games and meaningful experiences, sometimes synonyms other times antonyms, are signposts to the realities and joys of life. Perhaps the most obvious of
which being this: by knowing you, I better understand me.
Please join the Becker College Center for Career Education for a special conversation with Scott Hyman, a video game executive with a background in mobile and console business development, production and product development. Scott’s areas of expertise include a deep understanding of market drivers, business models, digital entertainment, character animation and art content pipelines. Student are encouraged to drop by, all are welcome. For more information, please click here.
When: November 13, 2013, noon – 1:00 p.m.
Where: Becker College, 80 William St., Worcester, MA 01609
Innovating for Growth
By Tim Loew, executive director, MassDiGI
Last week, entrepreneur and philanthropist Desh Deshpande and Governor Deval Patrick had a great conversation about the culture of entrepreneurship and its potential for the state’s Gateway Cities. No city represents that potential better than Worcester, which is why the conversation, part of “Innovating for Growth: A Gateway Cities Symposium,” took place, appropriately, at WPI’s Gateway Park.
The symposium, which was moderated by Housing and Economic Development Secretary Greg Bialecki, brought leaders from the private and public sectors together for a dialogue on the growth of the innovation economy in Gateway Cities.
Of special interest was a panel discussion among Becker College President Robert E. Johnson, UMass Lowell Chancellor Marty Meehan, Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse and New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell that featured thoughtful comments on the progress of innovation and entrepreneurship in their respective communities.
Over the course of the symposium one message came across loud and clear; leadership at all levels is critical.
Gateway Cities like Worcester, Lowell, Holyoke and New Bedford are fortunate to have a diversity of smart, creative and driven private and public sector leaders, institutions, foundations, entrepreneurs and companies that are committed to strengthening their communities – economically, socially and educationally – through collaboration, cooperation and partnerships.
From my own perspective, leaders in Worcester are doing a great job of aligning people, resources and ideas in ways that leverage the intellectual, creative, innovative and capital assets within the city. This is hard work – and intentional work. Fostering the conditions that allow for success is not a random adventure. It is all about planning and execution.
Over the last decade key initiatives have positioned Worcester to compete. The city’s transition from smokestacks to stem cells has been remarkable – an amazing success story in its own right. And, given the work done in recent years, it is reasonable to expect that transition to continue into areas such as software (ehealth, big data, games, apps) and robotics. In fact, we are already seeing green shoots coming up across many of those areas.
At MassDiGI, we feel not only are we serving the needs of students and entrepreneurs at Becker, in Worcester and across the state, but we’re fostering the start-up spirit so critical to competing in today’s world be it locally or globally.
And, MassDiGI is just one small example of a campus-based initiative that is having an impact. WPI’s Gateway Park is a national model for what can happen. All the work at MCPHS University has been fantastic. At UMass Medical School, many incredible things are happening. Clark, Holy Cross, WSU, QCC and Assumption are engaged and involved. On the campus edges across the city we’re seeing new businesses opening – be they spin-offs, restaurants or shops. Not to mention all the activity surrounding City Square, Union Station, DCU Center, Shrewsbury Street and the Canal District.
Yes. There is plenty of work to do. Worcester has challenges but the prevailing conditions are in its favor. The building blocks are in place. With a sustained, collaborative effort, I imagine an exciting decade to come.
*This post originally appeared on Worcester Connects.
Northern exposure: The Boston – Montreal video game connection
By Tim Loew, executive director, MassDiGI
When most people mention Boston and Montreal together, they’re talking hockey. Yet over the centuries, the two cities — and more broadly, Massachusetts and Quebec — have consistently grown commercial, educational and cultural ties.
To highlight those connections and prompt the development of new relationships, members of the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute (MassDiGI) team — including board chair and Becker College President Robert E. Johnson, MassDiGI Managing Director Monty Sharma, and I — were honored to join Governor Deval Patrick, Secretary of the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development Greg Bialecki, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative Chief Executive Pamela Goldberg, and other members of the administration on the Montreal leg of the Massachusetts–Canada Innovation Partnership Mission. The trade mission, which we joined on October 10 and 11, focused on several key areas of innovation such as life sciences, clean energy, e-health, information technology and digital games.
Canada represents an important market for the Massachusetts digital and information technology sectors, and vice versa. According to the US Commercial Service, the information and communication technology sector in Canada includes nearly 32,000 companies that generate more than $155 billion in annual revenues. As a segment of the overall technology sector, digital games are a shared strength between Massachusetts and Canada, particularly within Quebec. With about 10,000 jobs, the province ranks third in the world for game development, trailing only California and Japan.
We visited with entrepreneurs, educators, students, and professionals at Concordia University’s Technology, Art, & Games (TAG) Centre; Execution Labs games accelerator;Maison Notman House; WB Games Montreal; Ubisoft Montreal; and Ecole de Technologie Superiuere (ETS).
Gov. Patrick joined us on our visit to Execution Labs, home to six start-up companies, where a crowd of young indie game developers showed off their games, talked about their opportunities and challenges, and discussed ideas for greater cooperation between the innovation ecosystems in Montreal and Greater Boston.
In fact, between Montreal’s enormous studio complex and Boston’s expansive entrepreneurial scene, not to mention the many world-class academic institutions, we have a great chance to position the Northeast as a direct competitor to the West Coast’s Vancouver to Los Angeles corridor, when it comes to game development talent, resources, and ideas.
MassDiGI is now developing initiatives to support more student and faculty interactions, mentoring relationships, best practices, policy conversations, business development, conferencing, creative collaboration and community partnerships to further that goal. If we play our cards right, when you mention Boston and Montreal together next, you’ll be talking about a game on the iPad instead of on the ice.
*This blog originally appeared on Boston.com.
“The Massachusetts Digital Games Institute is a statewide collaboration of academics and entrepreneurs dedicated to fostering the growth and development of the Massachusetts digital and video games industry. MassDiGI was established in 2011 at Becker College and is funded through a variety of mechanisms, including corporate sponsorships, in-kind support, and state and federal grants, including a recent federal grant of $1.4 million that will be used to renovate MassDiGI’s New Ventures Center at Becker College, 80 William St., Worcester.”
Read and watch the full interview here.
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