New video game student organization formed

Kelly Cecil wanted to give West Virginia University students interested in video games an outlet to share their ideas.

Cecil, a computer science graduate student, founded a student chapter of the Independent Game Developers' Association.

"The group exists to be an educational community, not just programming," Cecil said. "We're here to give students experience working with a group."

Founded late in the spring semester, the group did not get some of their projects realized.

Cecil, along with Tim McGraw, assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering, have revived the group for the new school year.

"In the video game industry," Cecil explains, "it's very important to have experience with a project. We serve as a meet-up, to make connections."

McGraw, who serves as the group's advisor, has worked in the game industry before and is currently doing research in computer graphic areas. He is looking to improve development of textures and graphics in games.

"We give students exposure to top professionals in the field, as well as access to documents and literature about developing games, from box art to technical things," McGraw said.

"As a student group, they have discussions about games they've played or designs they've thought of. The goal is to do professional development and be entertaining at the same time."

The group does not only deal in entertainment software. The group also participates in interactive simulations and training that can be used in a lot of other industries, such as dentistry simulations, developing strategies for political interactions, scientific visualization and interactive techniques for navigating through medical data.

In addition to game design discussions and interactions with professionals, Cecil plans to have more interactive activities for the members.

"Part of what the group does is to try and do ‘video game workshops,' where we discuss topics related to video games, like artificial intelligence," he said.

"We have an ongoing video game development project, where we all work together to create a game, sitting down from start to finish – concept art, prototyping, development."

Last year, there were not enough members or enough time to complete simulation projects.

"This year we would like to see it from start to finish," Cecil said. "We're always interested in fresh minds to give us ideas we've never thought of."

The Independent Game Developer Association does not have an official meeting time.