Two RIT games win awards at 2021 Game Developers Conference

Two video games affiliated with RIT won awards at the 2021 Game Developers Conference (GDC) virtual event in July.

The Camera That Bleeds won the first-place “Most Innovative” award at the Intel University Games Showcase July 22. The team took home a trophy, laptops and other prizes.

The Intel University Games Showcase brings together the best student game projects from the top game developer academic programs in the country. Student teams present their games to a panel of judges made up of game industry luminaries and an audience of game industry professionals, as well as fellow students and faculty.

The Camera That Bleeds is a noir horror game being created by students from RIT’s College of Art and Design and Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences. Students worked on the game as part of the MAGIC Maker program in spring 2021.

In the game, players use an enchanted camera to photograph monsters who are only visible in the images. Players search for clues by exploring crime scenes, taking photos of evidence and uncovering invisible secrets using their cursed camera.

The Camera That Bleeds is being created by game design and development majors Mark Lipina ’21, Davis Snider, fourth-year, and Arthur Tisseront, fourth-year; fourth-year 3D Digital Design majors Eric Burby, Tae Won Chung, Jacob Irizarry, Leah Tyler and Ryan Welsh; fourth-year web and mobile computing major Jesenia Roberts; and animation majors Victoria Lofaro, fourth-year, and Michal Zadok '21. While the game is currently under development, developers are preparing to pitch the game to publishers.

"For a while, we've been hearing that our game looks pretty, but the gameplay is lackluster, and ever since we've been working hard at improving that core experience," said Lipina. "For us, this award demonstrates that our game isn't just visually interesting and unique, but that our overarching experience is as well. Needless to say, we're incredibly proud of what our team has accomplished."

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Genesis Noir, a game created by RIT alumni, won the Excellence in Audio and Excellence in Visual Art awards at the Independent Games Festival.

Genesis Noir won awards for Excellence in Audio and Excellence in Visual Art at the Independent Games Festival (IGF) July 21. The team took home $4,000 in prizes. The 23rd annual ceremony, which took place at GDC this year, honors the most innovative independent games of the past year.

RIT new media design alumni Jeremy Abel ’10 and Evan Anthony ’10 submitted Genesis Noir to the NYS Game Dev Challenge in 2017—and won in the independent developer category. Abel and Anthony then formed a studio named Feral Cat Den, in Brooklyn, N.Y. 

Genesis Noir is an adventure PC game set before, during and after the Big Bang. To save your love, you must top the expansion of the universe. The game led IGF with four nominations.