The Multimedia Club is attempting to make a first-person shooter video game inspired by Richard Connell’s short story, “The Most Dangerous Game,” using the Unreal Engine.
The club has a semester to complete the game with a handful of students using an engine that gives professional game studios trouble.
Multimedia Club President Yale Buckner realizes the challenges at hand but thinks he has just the team to pull it all together.
“It’s that kind of environment that you dream about getting,” said Buckner. “These are people who are actually thirsty to get out into the working world and make something happen.”
The Multimedia Club is developing the currently unnamed game with help from the Fame Club, Programming Club and Dub Club.
Players of the game take on the role of a man who has been marooned on a rainforest island and must fight for survival while being hunted by another character.
Buckner says that they wanted the game to have a more restrained, story-driven style than action games such as “Gears of War,” which features excess violence and chainsaw bayonet guns.
“If you put chainsaws on guns that shoot chainsaws and bears holding guns that shoot chainsaws, then it becomes a game about bears shooting guns with chainsaws,” said Buckner.
One problem they faced early on even helped to cement their style.
A “boss” character hunts players in the game, but due to technical restraints, according to Level Design Manager Trevor Rice, they could not actually show this character directly.
“So we got really creative,” said Rice. “Instead of showing him, we’re trying to design the game around his presence.”
This lends the environment a sense of tension, as players hear the boss coming for them or see his shadow.
Buckner, who also acts as the project manager, says they also wanted to try and emulate working conditions at a real game development studio.
This means that the team has already put in 30 man-hours into the project, which is currently 25 percent done according to Buckner.
According to 3-D Manager Joey Cannorata, it can take an entire semester just to render one section of a level.
At the end of the day, though, he says it’s worth it.
“It’s really satisfying,” said Cannorata.
