The Spore franchise is going to college! Maxis, an Electronic Arts studio, announced today that lead designer, Stone Librande, will be embarking on a lecture series.It will reach some of the nation’s top game design college programs including Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Southern California and Carnegie Mellon University.
Aspiring game designers, engineers and artists will have the chance to hear Librande speak about “Designing Playfully” and learn more about the career opportunities inside the creative, global videogame industry. Students will also be among the first to get their hands on Spore Galactic Adventures, the highly-anticipated expansion pack to the platinum hit Spore.
Maxis’ “College Invasion Tour” hit Georgia Institute of Technology on April 10, and will head to University of Southern California on April 16 and Carnegie Mellon University on May 1.
During the tour, Librande will guide students through the intuitive Adventure Creator in Spore Galactic Adventures while inspiring and teaching them how to make game concepts come to life. This easy-to-use tool gives students the ability to prototype design concepts and experiment with new ideas.
“Maxis and EA are huge proponents of college game design programs and nurturing rising talent,” said Lucy Bradshaw, VP and General Manager at Maxis. “The robust creative capabilities of the Adventure Creator in Spore Galactic Adventures, empowers future game developers with a different way to experiment with game design. I can’t wait to see what the students create.”
In FY09, EA welcomed 250 interns to studios in the USA, Canada, UK, Sweden, Germany. Last year alone, the company hired approximately 80 new graduates, fresh out of college.
“The games industry continues to grow with the rise of online gaming, casual gaming and the exciting challenges of new markets,” said Cindy Nicola, VP, Global Talent Acquisition. “EA is passionate about attracting and hiring the brightest graduates as they are our next generation of leaders. Our university partnerships and the talent they produce are key components of our overall talent strategy and we are deeply committed to continuing to hire interns and new graduates across EA.”
Librande is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Laboratory and California Institute of Arts Film/Video School. He has worked in a wide variety of technical and creative fields, and has been employed as an art director, video producer, software engineer, freelance illustrator and, for one long summer, a tractor driver on a farm in Oregon. He has also taught a game design course at Cogswell College in Sunnyvale, CA.
About Spore
Spore, available for PC and Mac, gives players their own personal universe in a box. Create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations, sculpt entire worlds and explore a universe filled with creations made by other gamers. Spore gives players a wealth of creative tools to customize nearly every aspect of their universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even spaceships. Spore Creatures, available on Nintendo DS™, takes players on a quest to save their species and the entire Galaxy. Meet, befriend or fight other creatures in a number of unique Touch Screen-based activities. Spore Galactic Adventures, available June 23, is a highly-customizable expansion pack for Spore, adding a tremendous amount of variety and fun to the Space game. Players can beam down to planets for the first time ever, play Maxis-created Adventures and easily create customized missions. Spore Hero, exclusive to the Wii™ and available in fall 2009, catapults players into the role of a fully-customized hero creature fighting to save its planet.
To learn more about Spore, Spore Galactic Adventures, Spore Hero or to download a free trial of the Spore Creature Creator, please visit www.spore.com.