Student-Made Video Game Receives Accolades

Cloud, a non-violent, non-competitive video game developed by Interactive Media students on a budget of $20,000, and available for free downloading, has already been the subject of a CBS News story, and has been downloaded by more than 150,000 people with more waiting to access the site.  In addition, Cloud has been selected as a finalist in this year’s Slamdance Guerilla Gamemaker Competition and will be showcased at the festival.  Cloud was developed by an eight-student team, headed by third year MFA student Jenova Chen and has been in development for a year.  It received the the Game Innovation Research Grant as the winning proposal in a competition sponsored by the university.  Tracy Fullerton who is the team’s faculty adviser, calls it one “of the first to blur the lines separating organic and electronic...the goal is a real emotional experience, a real dramatic experience.”  The plot of Cloud involves good white clouds floating above islands and bad gray pollution clouds over a city.  The player washes away the pollution by making the clouds rain.  The Dallas Morning News reviewed Cloud and said, “Yes it’s weird.  But, it’s also free and definitely worth a download.” Electronic Arts is acting as the server to help deal with the number of download requests.  Other members of the student team include John DeWeese, Vincent Diamante, Erin Dinehart, Aaron Meyers, Erik Nelson, Kellee Santiago, and Glenn Song.