LO 01 – Pole Position At the Game Academy

This particular reflection comes from my experience being a teaching assistant at the National High School Game Academy this past summer, a precollege program offered by Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment and Technology Center. I had the pleasure of watching 100-or-so high school students compute and design video games from scratch, using information they learned over the past three weeks at camp. One of these games was a recreation of the classic arcade game, Pole Position, made by a group of five students. The games were created from scratch using C++ programming, Maya animation software, and implementation into Unity. What set Pole Position apart from the other 19 games presented was its cohesion and vision. The team recreated the mechanics of the arcade game perfectly, offering a zoomed-third person camera view of the vehicle. The first level had a vintage, warm color scheme that beautifully rendered a sunset, and that alone was enough to be considered stunning. However, when one advanced to the next level, the visuals flared and transitioned seamlessly into a retro, purple vibe surrounded by night-life cool toned hues. This breathtaking display of art direction merged with programming to away the breath of every TA watching the presentation, and many of us logged into Perforce just to play Pole Position on our free time. What was most impressive is that this team perfected this with only a week of work. We genuinely encouraged them to continue refining it beyond camp, and that such a recreation would do well in Steam, or on the App Store. Unfortunately, I cannot provide a link as it is currently unavailable, but I hope they continue revisiting their game, given how successful its first iteration was.