What
Fresh from developing the nationally successful video game Rock Band, the game's lead designer and software engineer will speak with Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) students about how they got into the game development industry. These two professionals come to WPI from the Cambridge, Mass.-based video game developer Harmonix. They will outline the Harmonix approach to game design, and will give attendees a glimpse at some of their development tools and practices. The program is part of WPI's weekly Interactive Media & Game Development (IMGD) Speaker Series.
WPI launched its first-in-the-nation IMGD major three years ago. Go to www.imgd.wpi.edu for more information.
Who
Rob Kay is director of design at Harmonix. He trained as a computer animator, and spent a few years animating Looney Tunes characters for video games. He later joined Harmonix to design Eyetoy: AntiGrav (2004). After leading the level design team on that title he was lead designer on Guitar Hero (2005) and Rock Band (2007).
Ike Adams is a software engineer at Harmonix. He studied computer science and mathematics at Syracuse University and started his video game career working at Cognitoy in 1999. He has worked on projects at game companies in the Boston area. The projects include Mindrover: The Europa Project, the Zoo Tycoon franchise, Star Trek: Legacy and Rock Band.
When
Thursday, February 7, 2008, 10 to 10:50 a.m.
Where
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Olin Hall, Room 107, 100 Institute Road, Worcester, Mass.
