Guildhall at SMU to hold fall Exhibition on Dec. 14

DALLAS (SMU) — The Guildhall at SMU will host its bi-annual graduate Exhibition showcasing video games developed by graduating students on Friday, December 14, 2012. The Exhibition will honor Cohort 16, which is comprised of 31 graduate students who specialize in art creation, level design, software development and production.

The Exhibition will take place in Building 2 of the SMU-in-Plano campus, which is located at 5232 Tennyson Parkway.  All of the following events are open to the public:

• 1 to 3 p.m. – Students will give an Honors Seminar, presenting works that were selected by faculty from cohort 16
• 3 to 4 p.m. – Open play session of 2-D and 3-D games developed by Cohort 18 and 19, who will graduate in 2013 and 2014
• 4 to 5 p.m. – Final Team Games presentations
• 5 to 6 p.m. – Open play session of Cohort 16 capstone games

A reception for students graduating from The Guildhall will conclude the day’s events. The event is by invitation only.

Dr. Greg Zeschuk, co-founder and president of BioWare Corp., will be the honorary keynote speaker at the Cohort 16 graduation reception. Zeschuk launched BioWare in 1995 with Dr. Ray Muzyka. Since its inception, the development studio has created some of the world's most critically acclaimed games and has received numerous awards.

Zeschuk and Muzyka led BioWare as joint CEOs from 1995 to 2008. After Electronic Arts acquired BioWare in 2008, Zeschuk served as vice president of Electronic Arts until 2012, when he retired from the company. He also served as group creative officer for BioWare Group and general manager of BioWare Austin. As group creative officer, he was responsible for BioWare studios in Edmonton; Montreal, Quebec; Fairfax, Virginia; Galway, Ireland; and Austin.

As co-executive producer, he was responsible for several notable titles, including Shattered Steel, the Neverwinter Nights series, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the Mass Effect series and the Dragon Age series.

Currently, Zeschuk serves as director of Zeroes 2 Heroes and as a director and co-chairman of the Board for CodeBaby Corp., which he co-founded in 2001. In addition to having over 15 years experience in the game industry, Zeschuk holds a medical degree from the University of Alberta and has completed the executive MBA program at the Queen’s School of Business.

About The Guildhall at SMU

The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University is one of the premier graduate video game education programs in the US. Many of the school’s founders are industry icons, and classes are taught by industry veterans. Since 2003, the program has graduated over 450 students, who now work at more than 150 video game studios around the world. 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, software development and production. For more information, visit http://guildhall.smu.edu.

For more information about the Exhibition, contact Doug Darby at ddarby@smu.edu or 972-473-3545.