A group of SUNY Canton Game Design and Development students showcased their multiplayer video game during the college's Scholarly Activities Celebration, held on Wednesday, April 16.
Led by Jonathan T. Zimmermann (pictured), a 32-year-old non-traditional student who lives in Canton, the team created a playable level of the college's first student-developed multiplayer game using Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3D creation tool for their senior capstone course.
Inspired by first-person games like Activision's "Call of Duty: World at War - Zombies," the students' "Fragments of Arundos" challenges up to four players to work together on a shared objective using medieval armaments.
"The premise of the entire game is the city being attacked by waves of these enemies," Zimmermann said while playing the game. "Your goal is to defend as much of the city as you can and survive for as long as you can. We've had as many as 120 attackers at one time."
There are points of interest inside the city, including a tavern and a blacksmith shop. "As you fight enemies, your sword becomes dull and less efficient," Zimmermann said. "If you're using a bow, you'll eventually run out of arrows, so you visit the blacksmith."
The invading forces can target the points of interest and eliminate the non-player character villagers who provide support for the defending forces. If the enemies succeed, the protagonists will be unable to hold their position and ultimately lose the game.
Zimmermann served as the lead game developer for the project and was joined by his classmates, Matthew L. Bassett of Loch Sheldrake, Benjamin C. Rosenblum of Brooklyn, Ali B. Walker of Newburgh, and Rowan L. Wysocki of Taberg. Each of the students had defined roles, including player design, art, user interface design, and player and world animations.
During the senior-level capstone class, students are challenged to create a "vertical slice" or a small segment of an overall game. The team estimates that they clocked more than 1,000 hours over the last semester to push their creation to its current stage.
"We're really pleased with the feedback so far," Zimmermann said. "The plan is to release 'Fragments of Arundos' on Steam [a digital game distribution platform] next year."
According to Morgan Hastings, a lecturer for the program, their project represented a difficult challenge for professional programmers and is seldom undertaken at the college level.
"It is notoriously difficult to make sure all data works together seamlessly, as one small stutter, bug, or loss of information can cause a player to lose a battle or interaction," Hastings said. "It's a great inspiration to see our students excel in producing such a professional project."
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