The DET club is developing a virtual campus multiplayer game that current and potential students can experience.
Austin Graham, president of the DET club, is one of the leaders in developing this project.
“It’s a project where we are teaching DET students how to 3-D model, and we are using the ACU campus as the learning method,” Graham said. “We are familiar with campus, so we can make what’s familiar.”
The club is split up into groups of programmers, 3-D modelers and animators to produce each aspect of the game.
They’re following the standard game development procedures in order to produce this game, said Dr. Brian Burton, assistant professor of information technology.
“The main thing that we’re trying to accomplish is learning the process of developing an MMO style game,” Burton said.
They are currently in the process of building the 3-D models and creating a virtual environment. The club is learning how to develop the game through solving issues such as how to get one computer to talk to the other so avatars within the game can interact with each other. The DET club has been attempting this project for a couple of years, Burton said.
“We didn’t have a lot of people to work on the project,” Burton said. “Now we have over 60 students who are DET majors, and they are interested in creating these worlds.”
Burton also said technological advances such as updated collaboration tools have made this project easier now than ever before. Besides learning the basics of game development, this project is also helping with Burton’s current research study about how people use avatars for learning. This project, once completed, could also be used by ACU recruiting.
“We would like to have a fully fleshed-out game at some point,” Graham said. “It’s going to take a long time for that to actually happen, but at the end ACU could use it, if they wanted to, for marketing, promotions or for incoming students.”
The DET club is split up into a game group and film group. It is open to every major and meets Thursdays at 7 p.m.
“It is an open club to anybody who is just interested in learning more about making games, animation or movies,” Burton said. “That’s what digital entertainment is about, and that’s what our club is about. We’re a support group to help people recognize what they’re trying to create for these virtual worlds.”
