University of New Orleans game development students presented six original video games they developed in a showcase at Earl K. Long Library on Thursday, May 8, 2025. The event marked the culmination of the CSCI 4675: Advanced Game Development course taught by computer science professor Ben Samuel, as well as the culmination of the game development concentration.
At the beginning of the course, each student created their own game concept, designed paper and digital prototypes, and pitched their ideas to the rest of the class. From those pitches, six games were selected to move forward: Wild Bites, Beatmaker, Blood Baking, Breathe, Never Go Alone, and The 925. Students formed teams around each selected project and developed the concepts into playable games over the rest of the spring semester.
“Developing a video game takes a vast amount of creativity, organization, technical ability, artistic ability,” said compuster science professor Ben Samuel, “but despite how hard it can be, every single student in this class knocked it out of the park, did their absolute best.”
Most of the students taking CSCI 4675 also took CSCI 4670: Fundamentals of Game Development in the fall semester, but several are music or fine arts students. The course is cross-listed into other departments for students who want to learn how to direct sound or visual design for video games.
"I know that I want to get into game development on the arts side, so this was the easiest way for me to see what that could be like in the professional world," said one bachelor of fine arts student. "Working on a game is very different from working on art in general, there are a lot of different concepts to merge together, so this was a very helpful class for moving into what is hopefully a professional career."
The showcase featured playable versions of each game, and attendees were invited to demo them while speaking with the developers. Many students attended to blow off some steam at the end of finals week, and several video game developers working in the greater New Orleans area visited to talk to the student developers as well.
