Watch the Game Design and More Workshop VIDEO

A Taste of MDM: Game Design and More Workshop

The Centre for Digital Media is hosting A Taste of MDM: Game Design and More, an interactive workshop to give prospective students a taste of the 20-month MDM program. Distilled down to one evening session, this is an ideal opportunity to experience what this ground-breaking graduate program is all about.

Participate in three interactive workshops given by MDM faculty and industry affiliates. The workshops will explore:

• The Ever Expanding Digital Media Spectrum presented by New Media BC President Kenton Low
• Top Tech Trends in Digital Media presented by industry veteran, Academy Award winner and MDM Faculty, Glenn Entis
• Create a Game in Less Than an Hour - Principles of Game Design presented by award winning game developer and MDM Faculty, Jeremy Gibson

The Workshop will be followed by the official launch of the MDM International Game Design Contest. Grand Prize: $1,000 Entrance Scholarship towards tuition for the MDM Program and/or any Adult Continuing Education Course offered at the Centre for Digital Media beginning in September 2009. Scholarship generously supplied by industry affiliate Annex Pro.

Who’s it for?

A Taste of MDM: Game Design and More is intended for artists, engineers, designers, and generalists with a passion for digital media who are currently enrolled in an undergraduate program or have equivalent work experience and are interested in applying for the Masters of Digital Media Program. This workshop is the ideal opportunity to get a taste of this groundbreaking graduate program!

Workshop Details

MDM Game Design Contest

Have a brilliant board game idea? Participate in the Game in Less Than an Hour workshop (or watch it online - see below) and submit your game design (see Contest Details) for a chance to win a $1,000 scholarship, generously sponsored by Annex Pro, towards tuition for the MDM Program and/or any Adult Continuing Education Course offered at the Centre for Digital Media beginning in September 2009.

As part of the Create a Game in Less Than an Hour workshop supporting materials, a podcast of the March 2nd workshop will be posted on this website March 24th.For more information, see Contest Details.

Competition opens March 2nd and closes April 30th, 2009.

Workshop Speakers

Glenn Entis - Glenn is an Academy Award-winning animation pioneer and games industry veteran. The former CEO of Dreamworks Interactive, Glenn worked with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg on a number of video games including the first title in the successful Medal of Honor series. In 2000, when Dreamworks was acquired by EA, Entis joined the gaming giant and went on to become their Chief Visual and Technology Officer. Prior to joining Dreamworks, Entis co-founded Pacific Data Images (PDI), where he co-wrote PDI’s first animation system, earning him a Scientific and Technical Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures and Arts. As a founding member of the MDM Advisory Board, Glenn has played a significant role in developing the MDM Program. As adjunct faculty, he will continue to provide guidance and leadership for the ongoing development of the collaborative design skills of MDM students.

Jeremy Gibson - Jeremy has a Masters of Entertainment Technology from Carnegie Mellon University, and a B.S. in Radio, Television, and Film from the University of Texas. While at Carnegie Mellon, he was part of the team which created the multiplayer game Skyrates, which won the Silver Gleemax Award for Strategic Gaming in 2008 and recently the Jayisgames award for Best Simulation Game of 2008 in both the staff and audience award categories. Jeremy has worked as an intern for Walt Disney Imagineering, as a design intern of Spore, and an Associate Producer at Electronic Arts/Pogo.com. He has been a lead programmer for Human Code and frog design and was President of Digital Mercenaries, Inc. from 2001-2003. Before joining the faculty team at MDM, he designed and taught new media and game design courses at Texas State University in San Marcos, Austin Community College, and the University of Texas.

Kenton Low - Kenton is the President of New Media BC (NMBC), an association representing British Columbia’s 1,100+ digital media companies operating in sectors including video games, animation, eLearning and Web 2.0. Prior to New Media BC, Kenton held a number of executive positions including President and CEO of Robeez Footwear, Chief Marketing Officer for Riverdeep, President of Universal Studios Online and Executive Vice President for Vivendi Universal’s portfolio of new media companies. Kenton’s career also includes several years at the Walt Disney Company, where he served as Vice President at Disney’s Internet Group, Disney Interactive and Walt Disney Imagineering. Over the years, Kenton has taught strategic planning, marketing and customer service courses at universities and corporate training programs.

The Grand Prize for the Game Design and More Contest has been made possible through a generous donation by Annex Pro.