ACU Virtual Campus - A Virtual Environment Project
What is the DET Club?
I'm glad you asked! The Digital Entertainment Technology Club (DET Club) at Abilene Christian University is an organization dedicated to teaching students skills in film, animation, and game development by working on projects as a team. Our Game Development group has focused on making an MMO style project and recreating the ACU campus as a virtual world. In the 2014-2015 School year, I was in charge, along with three others, to oversee the project, get a concept down, and begin planning. In the 2015-2016 school year, I became President of DET Club and now oversee all of the DET Club projects. Katey Bluel was made President of Game Development and she has a Vice president and Secretary under her. We are working together this year to create tutorials for the various requirements of game development (modeling, texturing, programming, etc) to prepare game development group members to work on their own tasks. I'm still very much involved with this project, even as President, and am in charge of the programming aspects and some of the modeling aspects.
Summary:
The virtual campus project is an exploratory project for Digital Entertainment Technology majors to learn about game development. We aim to recreate the Abilene Christian University campus in a virtual environment. The goal of the project is to create a fun environment using an atmosphere that the students are very familiar with and learn at the same time. The main focus currently is on the 3D modeling and texturing and working with Unity.
The virtual campus project is an exploratory project for Digital Entertainment Technology majors to learn about game development. We aim to recreate the Abilene Christian University campus in a virtual environment. The goal of the project is to create a fun environment using an atmosphere that the students are very familiar with and learn at the same time. The main focus currently is on the 3D modeling and texturing and working with Unity.
Project Status - Stand-By:
For the past year, several officers and myself have been teaching students how to use game engines. In the Spring of 2016, Amazon released the Lumberyard Engine. It was decided to switch to use that engine before too much progress was undertaken on the virtual campus. Since the Lumberyard has a few hiccups to work out (looking at you object importer), the project is on standby. |
My Role in the Project:
As President of DET Club, it is my job to oversee and assist in all of the projects undertaken by the club. As I was a leader of this project last year, I have stayed with this project to fill in the gaps in specialization (programming and modeling). I organize tutorial sessions pertaining to those area, while Katey Bluel, President of Game Development is responsible for organizing the group and ensuring the project is moving forward. I will undoubtedly be programming and modeling alongside the other students on this project. |