Cogswell Students Show VR Mobile Game at Appy Hour
July 29, 2015

Cogswell Students Show VR Mobile Game at Appy Hour

SUNNYVALE, CA – Cogswell College, a 600-student educational institution offering a unique curriculum fusing Digital Art, Engineering and Entrepreneurship, will have two students from its Game Design & Development Program present a newly produced, school-developed mobile VR game during the 2015 SIGGRAPH Conference’s “Appy Hour” showcase in Los Angeles (August 9-13).

Originally prototyped during the 2015 Global Game Jam by Cogswell students Christian Sasso and Steven Ulrich, "We Are Cubed" (WeR3) is the next evolution of 3D puzzle game. Sasso and Ulrich will demonstrate WeR3 during SIGGRAPH 2015’s “Appy Hour,” a cocktail reception where independent app developers can show their apps to the SIGGRAPH 2015 attendees. During this event, participants get feedback, cultivate new ideas, and make contacts to help move their efforts along. “Appy Hour” features new apps that use augmented reality, computational photography, image manipulation, location-based gaming, or anything someone can make a mobile device do. 

In WeR3, each level presents players with a colored canvas they must recreate using their own colored avatar. Players must develop a strategy for moving their six-sided avatar across the landscape, as some faces of the avatar "paint" different colors. Developed in the Unity Game Engine using Google Cardboard technology, the game can be enjoyed as a standalone smartphone experience using touch controls or, much more interestingly, as a completely hands-free Virtual Reality experience. The Virtual Reality mode immerses the player within the game world, and the intuitive and easy to use controls take nothing away from the experience. For more information about WeR3, visit http://myvirtualrealitygames.com

John Duhring, Director, Strategic Alliances and Alumni Relations with Cogswell College, said, “The acceptance by Siggraph of our students’ new game ‘WeR3’ points to a critical note of differentiation about our school’s approach. There is no doubt that conventional wisdom embraces the idea that exposure to research provides the best college experience. However, most colleges request that students graduate first before they are allowed to create experiments. Our students have the opportunity to paw through brand new technologies and generate their own experiences while they are still undergrads.”