Monroe County Community College hosts open house on National Video Games Day

Creating a video game used to require millions of dollars, a large team of developers and expensive sophisticated equipment.

But today, thanks in large part to evolving technologies, a small group of talented and devoted people can make the next hit game in their basement.

They just need the proper training.

Dozens of prospective students, incoming freshmen and even some families who don't have to start thinking about college for at least a few years flooded into the computer labs inside Founders Hall at Monroe County Community College Monday for the National Video Games Day Open House. The event was intended to showcase MCCC's App Development, Computer Science and Game Design and Development programs. Prospective students and their families were given the opportunity to tour the labs and learn about the programs, as well as meet faculty and current students and see demonstrations of prior students' work.

The program began in the college's main cafeteria, where college administration explained some of the basics about the school's associate of applied science degree and the various specializations students can pursue.

According to a press release from MCCC, the college's associate of applied science degree with specialization in application development is designed to train students in web and mobile app development. The college also offers a one-year certificate in this area. The associate of applied science degree with specialization in computer science is designed to train students for the area of computer programming in an engineering/science environment. The associate of applied science degree in game design and development provides students with the foundational skills for game design and development.

Monday's program was initially supposed to take place entirely in one of the computer labs inside Founders Hall. But so many people registered for the event that the college had to take up both of the building's labs, as well as the cafeteria.

MCCC Instructor of Computer Information Systems, Zackary Moore, was one of the faculty members leading Monday's open house. A 2011 graduate of St. Mary Catholic Central High School, Moore believes the excitement around the college's game design program, in particular, stems from the relatively recent explosion in popularity of indie - or independent - video games. These games are typically produced by a small team of developers rather than at a big-budget studio overseen by one of the publishing titans of the industry, such as Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft.

Indie games such as Stardew Valley, Shovel Knight and Cubhead were initially published on platforms such as the PC-based Steam, but have since gone on to debut on every major gaming console - making their small teams of creators millions of dollars in the process.

"I think the big appeal is indie game development," Moore said. "They want to make their own games, publish their own games, work for themselves, work from home. They have all of those abilities at that point."

Moore said that students in MCCC's Game Design and Development program will begin by learning various coding languages. He said the class that most students are itching to get to the most is CIS 267 - Beginning Game Programming, which they take in the fall semester of their second year in the program.

"What I do for that course is three-quarters of that semester I'm teaching you, showing you examples of 'This is how collisions (between two virtual objects) happen, this is how you throw an object, this is how you do x, y and z,'" Moore said. "Then that remaining quarter of the semester it's 'group up and make me a game.'"

Much like how they will operate in the real world, students have to pitch their idea for a game to Moore and the rest of the class. Everyone then votes on the game that they will cooperatively develop over the final four weeks of the semester.

"From then on they kind of polish that out, and along the way I give them milestones, give them things they need to achieve, and I just keep track of it," Moore said.

Two of the games Moore's previous classes created were on display for attendees to try out at Monday's open house. Moore said this initial game is normally created using pre-made digital assets that are in the public domain, but students who progress to the capstone course in the winter semester of their second year will then develop their own games using assets - sounds, animations, code - that they make themselves.

Moore said that it's up to the students to decide how far they want to take their games, but added that he's constantly surprised by just how professional their final projects turn out.

"The last game (my students made) was the best game I have ever seen developed by students," he said. "It had an actual storyline with it, it had experience points (your character could earn), with it, I think they did four, huge levels. It was Zelda-based (meaning it was based off of Nintendo's popular 'Legend of Zelda' franchise), and it was very intense and you could just tell they did a huge amount of work... The students take off with it."

MCCC is hoping to continue expanding its game and app development programs. It currently has three Oculus-branded virtual reality headsets, and Moore said the college is currently exploring moving into the augmented reality space by purchasing Microsoft HoloLense equipment.

For more information about MCCC's game and app development programs, along with the rest of the college's offerings, visit https://www.monroeccc.edu/.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Monroe County Community College hosts open house on National Video Games Day