Creating video games seems like an unexpected pastime for a music education major, but it’s what James Smith has enjoyed doing in his three years at Ithaca College.
Last month, Smith, a junior who hails from Liverpool, joined the IC Game Developers Club in the 2015 Global Game Jam, a 48-hour video game creation event that drew 28,837 creative minds from 78 countries.
Smith said the IC team kicked off its game creation spree at 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 23. They were tasked with designing a game around the question, “What do we do now?”
In just two days, Ithaca’s team built a prototype of an action/puzzle game called “Lucid,” which follows a young hospital patient having an out-of-body experience as she tries to piece together what has happened to her.
“It’s similar to Pokemon,” Smith said of “Lucid’s” linear gameplay.
Players use a computer’s arrow, shift and enter keys to navigate through rooms and collect objects so the ghostly protagonist can escape her predicament, and the shadowy figure that follows her throughout the game.
Although his academic focus is music, Smith has taken an interest in the graphic aspect of video game design. He was in charge of art and level design for “Lucid.”
“Growing up, I used to play some video games,” Smith said, citing Nintendo’s Kirby franchise as a favorite. “I found something really interesting about the art and the music — it’s like moving art. … I just love the aesthetics.”
Smith described himself as a casual gamer as a child. Joining the Ithaca College Gamer Symphony Orchestra, which plays exclusively songs from video games, piqued his interest in gaming a bit more. He joined the Game Developers Club and is now secretary.
“I joined the club my freshman year and met a lot of nice people who were really accepting,” Smith said.
In addition to the entertainment and social aspects of gaming, Smith said he believes video games can teach people new things, from fine motor skills to life lessons.
“My roommate wanted to build a game about bullying [prevention],” he said. “They have the potential to inform and make a point.”
That philosophy is important to Smith, whose goal is to one day become a music teacher. He has fond memories of accompanying his mother to her job working with preschool-aged children, one of the factors that led him to his chosen field.
“I love music and teaching as much as I love video games. It’s very rewarding,” he said. “It’s so much fun to work with kids.”
As for the Game Developers Club, Smith said they’re trying to “branch out” into the greater Ithaca area.
“We’re trying more to get out in the community and find people interested [in gaming],” he said. “The Ithaca community is really diverse.”
Smith said the club is slowly increasing in numbers, but there’s always room for more.
The “Lucid” game demo is available for download for Windows at globalgamejam.org/2015/games/lucid.
