Rensselaer Announces Third Annual GameFest

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. announced that it will host the third annual Game Festival & Symposium, a two-day exposition featuring discussions with prominent members of the gaming industry. On April 28th, the event will showcase the latest work from than twenty teams of students minoring in game studies or taking game design classes, who were chosen by Rensselaer’s games studies faculty to exhibit the games they’ve created over the last twelve months. A symposium to be held on April 29th will feature lectures and panel discussions with Rensselaer alumni who work within the gaming industry, including Michael Lewis, president of Cryptic Studios, Karthik Bala, founder and CEO of Vicarious Visions, and Tobi Saulnier, founder of 1st Playable Productions, makers of the recently released Cabbage Patch Kids game for Game Boy Advance. “We’re encouraging our students to play an active role in shaping the future of this evolving genre, not learn an industry, but shape it as time goes by,” says Kathleen Ruiz, associate professor of electronic arts at Rensselaer. “The Rensselaer game studies program encourages intense, interdisciplinary teamwork, which of course is necessary to solve some of the new complex problems in medicine, biotech, and the environment.”