Drexel EGS’s Citywide Gaming Projects
The Entreneurial Game Studio (EGS) is Drexel’s resource for students looking to develop and produce games. It seeks to produce innovative leaders in the video game industry from Drexel students. One of their most eminent projects over the years has been their efforts to produce citywide gaming experiences, under the direction of Dr. Frank Lee. In 2013, the studio turned the Cira Centre’s 29-story LED display into a game of Pong, and then, one year later, turned two faces of the Cira Centre into a two-player game of Tetris. Miss Arianna Gass, the EGS’s Program Manager, referred me to Jake Carfagno, the EGS’s co-op student, who was happy to tell me more about the Studio’s exciting projects.
The foremost inspiration for the projects was to bring people together. As Carfagno explained, “the most powerful element of video games is agency.” Video games, unlike other media like movies or novels, are quite immersive. They put the user into the action, and therefore drive the players to interact and have fun together. Additionally, by displaying the games on the side of the Cira Centre, the EGS made it not only an engaging experience, but a “community experience that anyone in Philadelphia [could] enjoy.”
According to Carfagno, the most difficult, as well as the most innovative, part of making the projects a reality was likely setting up the interface that allowed people outside of the Cira Center itself to control the LED display with game controllers. In terms of future skyscraper-sized gaming experiences, the EGS allows middle-school-aged users of their Skyscraper Games website to design games on a virtual Cira Center-esque skyscraper façade. They aim to eventually conduct a competition that will bring the best of those games to life on the actual building. Students interested in participating in similar projects should remain on the lookout, as the EGS occasionally hires students for such things. Particularly savvy students can also become members of the EGS game incubator, to develop their own games.
