GamePipe News & Events
Humana Launches Initiative to Reach Consumers Through Games
September 7, 2007, Yahoo Finance News
Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM - News) announced today its quest to impact consumer behavior through a new medium: Games for Health. The new initiative has the potential to revolutionize the way Humana engages consumers by providing them guidance and motivation in a way that is interesting and exciting. "Giving healthcare consumers the ability to become more closely connected with the management of their health through video games is a unique way in which to accomplish Humana's goal of helping members become both mentally and physically healthy," said Grant Harrison, vice-president of Humana's Integrated Consumer Experience. (more)
Sandia computer scientists and USC student gamemakers create disaster-training tool
August 22, 2007, Sandia National Labs
LIVERMORE, CALIF. — Peanut butter and jelly. Wine and cheese. Dinner and a movie. Some things just naturally go together. But national security and video games? At first glance, those two aren’t exactly a soft brie and a glass of Merlot in terms of compatibility. If Sandia computer scientist and software engineer Donna Djordjevich has her way, however, perhaps today’s video game-loving youth will become our next generation’s terrorist-fighting scientist, especially if a prototype project she now has under development with the University of Southern California’s GamePipe ....(more)
Games Students Play, and Make
June 07, 2007, Viterbi Newswire
Students taking Principles of Software Development (Games) in the USC Viterbi School’s new computer science videogame development degree program, learned by creating a multiplayer, networked video game, experiencing the entire software development process, from coming up with the idea for a video game through creating the software requirements specifications and design documentation to programming the game in C++. For the students, most of whom were sophomores, it was not a typical programming course. They had to work together as a team .... (more)
At USC, developing game coders
May 11, 2007, CNET News
LOS ANGELES--Sitting in a small room on the third floor of the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering on Tuesday, a group of video game industry professionals are cowering as a drummer on the other side of the room is flailing away wildly with a Nintendo Wii controller. "Put on the straps," one man in the very back of the room said. "You're going to kill us all." "Watch out," another said, "he's going strapless." The fear isn't real, of course, but rather a joke based on the well-publicized, though probably not all that common, propensity of energetic Wii players to throw their remotes into their TVs if they don't put the controller's straps around their wrists while playing.... (more)
Spring '07 GamePipe Demo Day Shines
May 25, 2007, Viterbi Newswire
The USC GamePipe Laboratory's fourth Demo Day May 8 attracted its usual capacity crowd to the lab's Tutor Hall facility, and was, once again, the best ever. It was not just USC faculty and staff who were applauding. "The USC GamePipe program is the best out there," wrote one of the industry attendees, from Activision. "CMU is close in comparison but GamePipe is better than Guildhall and the strongest technically in the world."Students showed off creations with names like Bejeweled, StarQuake, Gunpowder, Assembly Force, Euphonics, Cirque de Slay, and Drum God; and also revisited games first shown at the last GamePipe demo, .... (more)
At USC, developing game coders
May 11, 2007, ZDNet news
LOS ANGELES--Sitting in a small room on the third floor of the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering on Tuesday, a group of video game industry professionals are cowering as a drummer on the other side of the room is flailing away wildly with a Nintendo Wii controller. "Put on the straps," one man in the very back of the room said. "You're going to kill us all." "Watch out," another said, "he's going strapless." The fear isn't real, of course, but rather a joke based on the well-publicized, though probably not all that common, propensity of energetic Wii players to throw their remotes into their TVs if they don't put the controller's straps around their wrists while playing....(more)
Mobile-Gaming Madness
March 05, 2007, MIT Technology Review
At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week, programmers will discuss the unique challenges posed by portable devices: the screens are small, wireless connections can be flaky, and processing power is limited. But the biggest complaint of many in the industry is the lack of standards. "The mobile-phone environment unfortunately has been driven by the service providers, and they have different demands for what technologies can and can't be used," says Michael Zyda, an engineering professor at the University of Southern California and director of its GamePipe Labs. .... (more)
Game Theory
July 2007, Redmond Developer News
Two years ago, Michael Zyda left his position as an instructor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., to launch a new computer science degree program at the University of Southern California. The twist? Zyda's proposed curriculum would teach students how to build computer games. This approach to teaching programming isn't just fun and games. Corporate development shops and computer science students alike are taking stock in the theory that they can learn a lot from the highly interactive process of crafting game software. (more)
Provost's Office Establishes Games Institute
February 02, 2007, Viterbi Newswire
As the study of video games spreads across disciplines, the University of Southern California is establishing a new USC Games Institute to unify and represent USC game research on and off campus. Vice Provost for Research Advancement Randolph Hall, who moderated the interschool effort to create the Institute, called it “an umbrella of activity” for the many schools and departments, including the Viterbi School, now involved in games research. “It's a way to share ideas across the schools, it's a way to promote our ideas on the outside, to industry, to peer institutions, to research sponsors,” Hall said. ....(more)