For the members of the Student Video Game Alliance, the hand-and-eye coordination needed to guide screen images through a series of highly elaborate schemes toward a satisfying resolution is more than just entertainment.
Video games, long associated with twenty-something slacker vocabulary, may become a viable economic program for the state of Louisiana, and SVGA seems determined to make it a reality.
The students that comprise SVGA operate under a three-pronged purpose: educational advancement, game development and business development.
Chris Meyer, vice president of educational advancement in SVGA, said SVGA has been working with Creative Technology Labs Group to create a Digital Media Arts and Sciences degree where students can learn to build their own video games.
Andrew Horwitz, SVGA president, said the formality of the organization has helped students work towards creating the technology to bring video game development to LSU.
A class entitled “Introduction to Video Game Development” is available in the fall, largely due to the SVGA’s efforts.
“If you’re under an organization, you feel better working toward a common goal,” Horwitz said.
In addition to bringing video game development to LSU, the students are building their own video game to enter in various conferences around the country.
Robert Perkins, founder of SVGA in fall 2000, said he struggled finding his calling during his college education.
“I didn’t want to design buildings,” Perkins said. “I wanted to design worlds.”
Video game development was not “on the menu,” he said.
Perkins found some friends interested in game development, and they started meeting regularly and working on their own games. They build the games using code, a computer language that uses mathematical logic to make things happen on the screen.
“Code is like English meets math on a caffeine-induced nightmare,” Perkins said.
Horwitz said the code language scares away some of the potential students from joining SVGA. Those fears are unnecessary, he said.
“You don’t have to know how to code to be a part of this,” Horwitz said. “But it’s not hard.”
The organization’s third operating purpose is to try to bring game development industries to New Orleans. With the new degree beginning soon, the students hope the graduates will stay in Louisiana.
There is no game development industry in the state, even though the company who designed the video game Doom originated in Shreveport, and the director of the game Run Like Hell grew up on Florida Boulevard, Perkins said.
“People have been a part of this, but no one has blazed a trail in Louisiana,” Perkins said.
SVGA also wants creative people of all genres to join the organization, like musicians for game soundtracks and artists for graphic design, Perkins said.
Horwitz also said the organization is looking for freshmen. Most of the current leaders are juniors and seniors.
“Once we’re gone and no one’s here, it’s going to die,” Horwitz said.
Interested students can contact SVGA at www.lsu.edu/student-organizations/svga or at www.gamevortex.com.