Author: by Beth A.

Today's Gamasutra educational feature, part of the expanded Gamasutra Education section of the site, describes the outcomes of what went right and what went wrong for student game Barrel Rapids. The title was made by a team at DigiPen Institute of Technology, headed up by student Pete Kugler, as part of their studies. Kugler introduces the game in the following extract: "The game is entitled Barrel Rapids, and it takes the idea of a constant sense of speed utilized primarily in snowboarding games and fuses it with the genre of combat racing, with the combat aspect being the focus for the player. This was done to force players to think and react quickly to the environment, all the while avoiding their opponents’ barrage of attacks. The idea to ride down barrels was developed from a conversation between my wife and myself as we were visiting the Niagara Falls. There we started to develop silly characters that we thought we be fun to play in this type of game. Later as a team, we narrowed the types of characters, as well as added new types that we thought would be most fitting for the game. We feel that the characters and zany theme play a crucial part in the fun experience provided by Barrel Rapids." You can read the full Gamasutra educational feature on the topic to learn more about the specifics of Barrel Rapids (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).