Vector online game conference features local speakers
Maxwell Kunze
Tim Fritz
Christopher Totten
The Kent State University at Tuscarawas computer design, animation and game design program will have three speakers featured on the Vector online game conference on April 24 and 25.
Vector is a game conference in its fifth year. While normally held at Eastern Kentucky University, the event this year is being held online and brings together creative minds from the world of digital media.
Maxwell Kunze, a junior majoring in computer design, animation and game design, will speak on the role of meme (virally popular concepts or ideas) culture in games. Kunze has always loved video games and their surrounding culture. His passion for making his own games was sparked in summer 2014 when he debuted “Go Fast: A Sanic Adventure.”
Kunze was able to make the game in less than 24 hours, and while it started off as a joke, the game gained a fairly significant amount of attention. Ever since, Kunze has worked toward a career in game development, and he believes memes serve an important purpose in video games.
Engineering technology lecturer Tim Fritz will speak about creating hand-drawn game animation with open-source tools. Fritz is a contributing animator on the upcoming game, Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends. With 15 years of technical experience, Fritz helped build the computer design, animation and game design program’s virtual reality labs, motion capture lab and render farm. He earned a master’s degree in technology from Kent State University.
Christopher Totten, assistant professor of the game design program at Kent State Tuscarawas, will speak about making games with public domain content and intellectual property. Totten also is the founder of Pie For Breakfast Studios, an award-winning Northeast Ohio area Indie game company.
Working as an artist, animator, level designer and project manager, Totten has made an impact in the game industry. He holds a master’s degree in architecture with a concentration in digital media from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. An organizer for the Smithsonian American Art Museum Arcade, he also is a life member of the International Game Developers Association.
AGD is animation game design, previously MAGC. It will be a bachelor's degree pending NASAD approval. (They moved their meeting back to July due to COVID-19 concerns.)
To register for the Vector online conference sessions, visit www.vectorconf.com.
Learn more about Kent State Tuscarawas’ computer design, animation and game design program at www.kent.edu/tusc/computer-design-animation-and-game-design.