Recent Posts

Recent Additions to DET and Professional Development.


We consume media constantly, so as a top Christian competitor in this field we hope to create content reflecting good.

Recently, our DET program has added a multitude of content to existing and new classes to the list. We strive to compete and improve constantly in virtual reality, game building, 3D modeling and texturing, publishing and certifications and are working to add and revise classes to cover more subjects such as 2D animation and in the Serious Games class, we added a large module on AI and machine learning. 2D animation is a brand new class premiering in spring of 2022; most of our focus as DET majors has been in 3D learning so a 2D art catered class in DET is very exciting.

Our professors work their hardest to include new technology as it comes out into the programs that they teach and we take pride in enabling our students to keep up with the times and programs that professionals use. A step towards students becoming proficient is learning to handle professional software, students are required to earn a couple of certifications in Adobe and a certification for Unity game engine and the future we hope to add a Maya 3D professional certification as well. We also encourage publishing at every corner, most of our classes are project based and finals week produces many student games at the end of every semester.

Improving: Serious Games, multiplayer/game engines 2, cinematics/virtual production, Game Materials.
New: 2D animation, Toonboom, Anamatics and traditional)

Video Game Publishing Showcase


These games and apps are all DET made! Whether on app store, Steam, or Android published, we have a mix of everything. Click on each preview for the link to check it out!!

Wildcat: Snacc Attacc - Apps on Google Play
Screenshot image
Screenshot image

‎Bucket of Fun
Hustlin' Through Hell - Apps on Google Play
‎Quick Kartz
Mobile Bit Apocalypse - Apps on Google Play

Zombie Survival: Block City - Apps on Google Play

WavePlayer
Mello

A New Dev’s Look at Publishing a Game


When I first started working on Mello about this time last year, I had no idea how difficult it would be. I mean, I knew that it wouldn’t be easy. If it was easy to make a game, skilled developers wouldn’t be paid as well as they are.

It was a difficult process, even though I had a solid team working with me and great instructors and tutors. Sometimes it was a technical problem or question, sometimes it was logistical- a “who, when, and what” kind of question. Most often though, I was plagued by a far more difficult problem to tackle- motivation.

Keeping your nose to the grindstone on a long-term project is almost never easy for me, even on a project that I enjoy working on, such as Mello. If it had just been up to me to finish development and publishing of Mello, I wouldn’t have made it. There were just too many days when I didn’t want to work or wanted to work on something else, or any number of things other than working on this project.

An early cutscene screengrab

The most important thing I learned while working on Mello was how to overcome this “developer’s block.” My best solution? Have immovable deadlines and someone (or someone-s) to keep me on track. That doesn’t mean hurt yourself over arbitrary deadlines- there’s (almost) always some leeway that should be left in the margins of a good schedule. However, it does mean that having an immovable date to get something done by gave me a solid enough reason to work on the project most days. Having good accountability from peers and mentors has also been incredibly helpful. There were plenty of days when I was encouraged (or shamed in a friendly way) into working by tutors, teammates, professors, or even just friends who knew about the project.

That’s not to say it’s all been difficult though. The joys of successfully solving a game logic issue, seeing an animation in motion, and, of course, seeing your page on the steam store are all plentiful and worth all the pain and annoyance that can come with game development.

A level in development

The other thing that I discovered in the process of developing Mello is that a game doesn’t have to be perfect from the get-go. It’s called game development for a reason. There are going to be trials and plenty, plenty of errors along the way. But figuring out how to solve those errors- discovering what’s possible and what’s not- finding the best solution to a given problem and figuring out what people like and don’t like are all part of the process. Ultimately, all these things have made Mello a much better game, and they’ve made me a much better developer.

Mello may still be rough around the edges in many places. It may not ever be the perfect game I want it to be, but I intend to keep working, keep developing it and working on it until I get it as close to perfect as I can.

Check out our game on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1619830/Mello/

Some of the marshmallows it’s up to you to save

Virtual Production: Using Unity HDRP to Create a Cinematic Short


Have you ever wanted to make an animated or mixed reality video?
You’ve come to the right place!

Dr. Burton’s classes have been making virtual production and cinematics using Unity and Unreal for the past several years. Recently he was asked by the great people at Unity to make a tutorial on how to make a simple animated short using the latest version of Unity (2021) and the High Def Rendering Pipeline (HDRP). Here it is for your learning enjoyment!

Marvelous Designer: Research Into The Art of Modeling 3D Clothes


During the Fall of 2021, Dr. Burton hired Colleen Gostomski, a sophomore DET student, to research how to make 3D clothing. If you didn’t know, this field of 3D modeling is currently on the rise, with digital outfits selling for as much or more than the real thing. Dr. Burton saw an opportunity for students to start small businesses in clothing modeling to help support them up to and after graduation.

Their first test was a plugin for Blender (a popular open-source modeling program) called Cloth Weaver. Cloth Weaver had its benefits, like its familiar layout and hotkeys (assuming the user was already familiar with Blender). However, since it was a plugin, Cloth Weaver had to use Blender’s physics engine do to all it’s calculations. This caused the reputably stable platform to crash frequently. This led to such monstrosities as these:

Honestly, what is this
This one was incredibly horrifying… Don’t apply cloth physics to skin

After a month of struggling with Cloth Weaver, Dr. Burton and Colleen decided to try something else. This was when Dr. Burton suggested Marvelous Designer, which wasn’t a plugin for anything, but an entirely new software. With an engine designed specifically to handle cloth physics, the process of modeling clothes became straightforward. Within a few weeks of use, Colleen had managed to make these:

Which, as you can see, are much better than what she made with Cloth Weaver. She plans to publish what she makes to the Unreal and Unity asset stores. This is an important part of her research: Dr. Burton doesn’t just want to be able to teach students how to make clothes, but also how to profit off of them. Being self-sufficient is an important creed of the DET department.

Colleen will continue to improve her skills with Marvelous Designer and similar programs, and then pass her knowledge on to other students. With any luck, DET students will soon be able to create asset packs for use in projects throughout the department, so keep your eye on the asset stores! You could find some of their work.

Game Engines


Game Engines

After a semester with a great amount of covid restrictions and challenges the DET 260: Game engines course overcame many challenges and produced amazing projects.

Throughout the weeks of this semester, they learned the principles and skills to develop an incredible game in Unity and Unreal.

During the course of the weeks the Game Engines class also studied and developed their skills to acquire The Unity Associate Game Developer certification and the Unreal Online Learning Badge.

Below you will see a compilation of some of the work that the Game engines class developed over the course of the weeks.

https://youtu.be/nLCRRt3jLxA