USC students’ games are ready for graduation

May is a hectic time for college seniors. They’re staying up all night to study for finals, saying goodbye to friends they may not see for a while, and figuring out which relatives they can take to graduation. If that wasn’t stressful enough, the students in the University of Southern California’s Advanced Games class had one more thing to worry about: making a video game.

Five months ago, I visited USC Games’ fall Demo Day showcase and played the games this year’s student teams were working on. They were rough and had temporary music, animations, and art. But they had a lot of potential as well. The purpose of the fall semester is to build playable prototypes, even if all the students have is just one level to experience.