The Depiction of Emotion through Character Animation To Intensify Player Immersion
By: Mark Flieg Jr.

This project examines the use of facial expressions, camera composition, and dynamic versus passive actions to better engage players through games. These techniques provide critical feedback to players in regards to their surroundings, and demonstrate their power to illicit emotion. The use of facial animation emphasizes how to help players respond to their environment. A variety of dynamic and passive actions demonstrate when and how to best utilize movement to demonstrate emotion. more >

The Improvement of Player Immersion in Pre-existing Game Worlds Through Advanced Modeling, Texturing, and Lighting Techniques
By: Mike Jones

This project examines the use of current generation modeling, texturing, and lighting techniques to improve player immersion in game worlds that were limited due to the hardware and software technology available at the time. The advancements of normal mapping and support for larger, more complex geometry and texture maps has allowed an unprecedented improvement in the detail of game environments, affording players worlds that they can easily become immersed in.  more >

Building Realistic Game Environments with Unreal 3 Technology
By: Graden McCool

This project will focus on the principles and techniques used to create a highly detailed, realistic environment for video games. The appeal of a believable space in games comes from the increased immersion players feel in environments that are not far removed from reality. The assets created for this project will mimic objects from the real world that would populate an environment which has been neglected and fallen into disarray. more >

Artistically Implied Narrative
By: Trisha Swanson

This master’s project studies viewer interpretation of the narrative of a static image.  This study provides incite into how story can be implied in a game setting without having to use text, voice-overs, or cut-scenes.  Story often gets pushed to the background to leave more room for gameplay and players often aren’t interested or patient enough to listen to a story anyhow.  Learning to imply the story through characters, environments, lighting, and mood can lead way to having the best of both worlds. more >