Since Nolan Bushnell successfully developed the first computer game, Pong
in Silicon Valley, 33 years have passed before a group of college students built the first gaming club at Ohio University -the OU Gaming Academy.
With its goal to be the largest local outlet for gaming socialization the club is bringing a new gaming scene to the more than 200-year-old university town, said OU senior Nathaniel Berger, president of OUGA.
The club is gathering gaming talents on campus and plans to have tournaments regularly with multiple games and players.
Playing games alone is fun but playing them together is more fun
Berger said.
Also, just as the name of the club suggests, the OU Gaming Academy is trying to relate academic research to the growing gaming technology industry in Appalachian Ohio, Berger said.
We want to learn more about video games
in all respects
such as how and why they are made
how game-play works
what helps or hurts a game
he said.
Currently, with a group of game-development talents gathered from different OU majors, OUGA is moving forward with their goals by working on their first video game project.
We want to provide information and hands-on experience by gathering local talents and attempting the development of a small game
Berger said.
The club is shaped by several guilds for the production of the video game. Each guild incorporates members from similar majors, including an art guild, a music guild, an advertising guild, a programming guild, a writing guild and a business guild.
OU sophomore Nathan Littleton, vice president of OUGA, helps communicate with the leaders of development guilds. Littleton is optimistic to the future accomplishment of their first project.
When actual production starts will be when everything comes together and gets interesting
he said.
OU senior Don White, OUGA's treasurer, is taking on the responsibility for making sure the club operates efficiently with funds.
I am very excited about this coming year's video game development project
