“If only I had a brain”…I’m not quoting the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, I’m quoting myself! EA sent out a press release today on the subject of a College Invasion Tour in which Maxis will head to three colleges – Georgia Institute of Technology (already occured on April 10), University of Southern California (April 16) and Carnegie Mellon University (May 1).
Spore Galactic Adventures Lead designer, Stone Librande will hold the lectures, guiding students through the Adventure Creator while inspiring them how to turn game concepts into reality. This tool will allow the students to prototype design concepts and experiment with new ideas. Read below for the full PR.
EMERYVILLE, Calif. – (Business Wire) The Spore™ franchise is going to college! Maxis™, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) studio, announced today that lead designer, Stone Librande, will be embarking on a lecture series that will reach some of the nation’s top game design
college programs including Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Southern California and Carnegie Mellon University. Aspiring game designers, engineers and artists will have the chance to hear Librande speak about “Designing Playfully” and learn more about the career opportunities inside the creative, global videogame industry. Students will also be among the first to get their hands on Spore™ Galactic Adventures, the highly-anticipated expansion pack to the platinum hit Spore.
Maxis’ “College Invasion Tour” hit Georgia Institute of Technology on April 10, and will head to University of Southern California on April 16 and Carnegie Mellon University on May 1.
During the tour, Librande will guide students through the intuitive Adventure Creator in Spore Galactic Adventures while inspiring and teaching them how to make game concepts come to life. This easy-to-use tool gives students the ability to prototype design concepts and experiment with new ideas.
“Maxis and EA are huge proponents of college game design programs and nurturing rising talent,” said Lucy Bradshaw, VP and General Manager at Maxis. “The robust creative capabilities of the Adventure Creator in Spore Galactic Adventures, empowers future game developers with a different way to experiment with game design. I can’t wait to see what the students create.”
In FY09, EA welcomed 250 interns to studios in the USA, Canada, UK, Sweden, Germany. Last year alone, the company hired approximately 80 new graduates, fresh out of college.
“The games industry continues to grow with the rise of online gaming, casual gaming and the exciting challenges of new markets,” said Cindy Nicola, VP, Global Talent Acquisition. “EA is passionate about attracting and hiring the brightest graduates as they are our next generation of leaders. Our university partnerships and the talent they produce are key components of our overall talent strategy and we are deeply committed to continuing to hire interns and new graduates across EA.”
Librande is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Laboratory and California Institute of Arts Film/video School. He has worked in a wide variety of technical and creative fields, and has been employed as an art director, video producer, software engineer, freelance illustrator and, for one long summer, a tractor driver on a farm in Oregon. He has also taught a game design course at Cogswell College in Sunnyvale, CA.
About Spore
Spore, available for PC and Mac®, gives players their own personal universe in a box. Create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations, sculpt entire worlds and explore a universe filled with creations made by other gamers. Spore gives players a wealth of creative tools to customize nearly every aspect of their universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even spaceships. Spore Creatures, available on Nintendo DS™, takes players on a quest to save their species and the entire Galaxy. Meet, befriend or fight other creatures in a number of unique Touch Screen-based activities. Spore Galactic Adventures, available June 23, is a highly-customizable expansion pack for Spore, adding a tremendous amount of variety and fun to the Space game. Players can beam down to planets for the first time ever, play Maxis-created Adventures and easily create customized missions. Spore Hero, exclusive to the Wii™ and available in fall 2009, catapults players into the role of a fully-customized hero creature fighting to save its planet.
To learn more about Spore, Spore Galactic Adventures, Spore Hero or to download a free trial of the Spore Creature Creator, please visit www.spore.com. For screenshots or press materials about Spore, please visit our press web site at http://info.ea.com
About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world’s leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS™, EA™, EA SPORTS Freestyle™ and POGO™. In fiscal 2008, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.67 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA’s homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA’s products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.
EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS Freestyle, POGO, Maxis, and SPORE are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Wii and Nintendo DS is a trademark of Nintendo. Mac is a trademark of Apple Computer
, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.