WHAT: Nearly 50 middle and high school students will demonstrate their 2-D video games from 1-2 p.m. on Thursday, July 2, at the Guildhall Academy, a summer program of The Guildhall at SMU in Plano. The game exhibition will be followed by an awards presentation from 2-3 p.m. The top game awarded by students and faculty will be shown on GamePro.com, a leading video game site that receives more than 6.4 million print and digital visitors a month.
Guildhall Academy is a two-week, 60-hour intensive session in which students create their own 2-D video game using Microsoft’s® XNA™ technology and a starter kit developed by SMU. Students will be able to take their games home and continue to develop and play them on a PC or Xbox 360. This year, the program is sponsored by several technology and game industry companies, including GamePro.com, GameStop, Microsoft XNA and Sci-Tech Discovery Centers.
WHERE: The Guildhall at SMU, Plano Campus, 5232 Tennyson Parkway, Bldg 2, Plano, TX 75024 Directions: http://www.smu.edu/maps/legacy.asp
ABOUT: The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University is the premier graduate video game education program in the US. Many of the school’s founders are industry icons, and classes are taught by industry veterans. In five years, the program has graduated over 300 students and alums have worked at more than 80 video game studios around the world, with several graduates now serving in leadership positions. SMU offers both a Master’s degree and a graduate Professional Certificate of Interactive Technology in Digital Game Development, with specializations in art creation, level design, and software development. For more information, visit www.guildhall.smu.edu.