Students Compete at Video Game Creation

zalas writes "Stanford's computer graphics class holds a video game writing competition each year at the end of the term, and this year's results are finally online. You can download all the finalist entries from the website. The winning entries featured very original game concepts, such as sending a spiked soccer ball through wormhole planets or infesting a growing maze of cheese with mold. Judges at the competition included representatives from Electronic Arts, Microsoft and the creator of Pong, Allan Alcorn. Ironically enough, the winners of the wacky category who received a voucher for an XBOX360 wrote a game that only worked on OSX laptops with the drop-protection motion sensors."

Comments

Re:Waste of time

[panthro]

I could never motivate myself to make a product which wastes time for everyone.

You begin by speaking for yourself. Why didn't you stay on this track?

Real innovation comes from making productive programs which not only save time, but make money.

Real innovation can come from all manner of sources, however unlikely your prejudices make them seem. This sounds like a fuddy-duddy "rap isn't real music" argument.

I hope these kids [...] I recommend these kids [...] I don't really understand kids [...] I know most of the kids [...] KIDS!

I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for those meddling kids!

You are not as smart as the Quake engine author, you can't do it by yourself. Quit the overzealous cocky attitude!

Now why would you say something like that? Any one of these "kids" could very well be as smart as the Quake engine author. Don't go around pushing your can't-do attitude on potentially bright young programmers. Would you say the same thing if they had an ambitious plan to make, say, a really good electronics simulator?

Games are just throw away work afterall.

Despite all your whining, the video game industry is a $11 billion industry in the United States alone, and keep in mind that video games are similarly huge in Japan, Canada and the UK. And the aforementioned Quake engine author appeared number 10 in TIME's 50 most influential people in technology. Not bad for throw away work.