PVCC Game Development Club beats last year’s score at contest

Six members of Piedmont Virginia Community College’s Game Development Club (GDC) spent the school year gearing up for the Information Technology Game Programming Competition at Radford University March 16 and 17. The annual contest, open to Virginia high school and community college students, requires each team to write and create a program using any programming language or game development environment.

GDC designers, programmers, artists and writers prepared for what they hoped would be a second chance after not placing at the competition in 2011. “Last year was GDC’s first full year in existence. It had sort of a fast and furious start,” said GDC President Kelly Shott. “We found out about the competition about 30 days beforehand and had about 5 active members. Our resources and timeline were different this time around.”

Equipped with two semesters of preparation and “a lot of really good do’s and don’ts feedback” from the 2011 contest judges, GDC earned second place in this year’s contest with a game entitled, “Meow’solini,” said Shott.

“We are very proud of those who worked on it,” said Mindy Farrell, vice president of GDC. The creators of “Meow-solini” include Kelly Shott, Mindy Farrell, Devin Platt, Tyler Byam, Andy Jones and Chris Williams.

Prizes awarded to the creators included $500 scholarships to Radford University, gift certificates and various Association for Computing Machinery products, according to Shott.

Radford University faculty and invited industry guests evaluated entries based on interface design, documentation, playability, graphics, originality and logic, among other criteria, opening doors for students of diverse talents to contribute. GDC members have the freedom to “decide who feels they’re best fitted for which role,” said club member Chris Williams.

“If you have any type of specialty, we can take you,” said Farrell. “There’s always something you can do; I’m a chemistry major, but as a hobby I love the art side.”

To students who are interested in game development but may feel intimidated by the process, Shott said, “We have members of all levels of programming experience. We use GameMaker and Unity, which are good teaching tools without having to know a lot of programming.”

Those interested in learning more may email gdc@pvcc.edu.