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Last week we were thrilled to take a first glimpse at the 21 boxes of games donated to UCSC via the UC San Diego library. With each box containing just under 100 games, we're expecting around 1,600 games to be added to UCSC's already expansive video game collection, hosted in the Science and Engineering Library. (If you haven't explored that collection yet, we highly recommend you do, by the way.) This donation includes original Playstation games, Playstation 2 games, and the occasional PSP game and random other treasures. We spotted a how-to-code accessory at one point, and had only peeked in four boxes. The enormous collection has never been catalogued, but we suspect this may be the entirety of Sony's Japanese releases on PS 1 and 2. The interesting collection crosses cultural barriers, with numerous pachinko games, anime-based games, and even the elusive train genre! For anyone who watches GameCenter CX, the hit Japanese television series based on challenging retro games, I suspect you might be able to find some of Arino's favorites here. The collection is thanks to the efforts of a number of people.

It all started with a game tester, who was also studying Japanese, was asked to dispose of the games. Instead of throwing them away, he contacted the head of Japanese Studies at UC San Diego. From that point they moved around, without joining any library, until the right connections were made and UCSC became the lucky recipient. For years the collection seemed destined to be the victim of campus reorganizations, only saved through the efforts of Stefan Tanaka, Jeremy Douglass, Lev Manovich, Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Sam Dunlap, and Christy Caldwell.

The graduate program for Game Design at UCSC is home to many gifted and amazing people. In the coming months, we will be showcasing some of these students! To begin our series, we asked Ben Samuel to come in and talk to us about his life. As it turns out, he’s a really interesting guy.

Ben is working on his ninth year at UCSC. He graduated as a double major in Theater and Computer Science, and then went on into UCSC’s graduate theater program. He was set to move to LA to begin an acting career, when fate intervened and he enrolled in Computer Science 248; Michael Mateas’s Interactive Narrative class. “That class changed my life. It showed me something that was a hybrid of everything I am passionate about, all rolled into one.” Immediately, Ben made plans to enter UCSC’s PhD program in game design.

This heartwarming story was posted originally by Peggy Townsend from news.ucsc.edu. Video games have already made a bigger difference in the lives of some people than perhaps we realize.

In a way, Juan Morales is attending UC Santa Cruz because of the video game Pokemon.

Morales, a dark-haired 18-year-old with an easy laugh, grew up in a world where sun, rain, and soil dictated where and how he lived. From his earliest memories, he and his family moved every six months to follow the crops, their lives divided between a migrant labor camp outside the agricultural town of Watsonville and a small trailer in the heart of the Central Valley.

Each move necessitated a new school and a different teacher for Morales and, because he didn't speak or read English, he felt isolated. He fell behind.

"I almost flunked kindergarten," he said.

But, clutching a GameBoy console in his hands, Morales found a constant in the video game Pokemon Yellow. In order to progress, he says, he had to learn to read English, so he spent hours puzzling out the words, watching what actions led to certain consequences.

It wasn't long, he says, before he was not only reading and speaking English but also learning about strategic decision-making — tools that got him through high school and into UCSC, where he is studying computer science and, of course, video game design.

"Someday, I'd like to have my own gaming company," he said. "That would be amazing."

UCSC students made multiple games that were highly recognized at the Global Game Jam this year. In the wake of that, I decided to sit down and talk with Bryan Blackford about the Jam. This was Blackford’s first year organizing the Jam and fifth year participating, and he had a blast doing it. After hearing him describe it, I’m not surprised:

This year’s Game Jam at UCSC began with an inspiring presentation by Stone Librande, veteran designer of Blizzard and EA. Librande has designed a game for each of his children every year, since they were very young. He used these games to explore design challenges and every year he tried to top the complexity of previous designs. Having these games in his portfolio was actually a critical part of why he was initially hired by Blizzard, and he was quick to point out that the Jam’s participants were building portfolios in much the same way.

Stone’s keynote was followed by a brief virtual presentation that was globally broadcast at every Game Jam location, ending with the reveal of this year’s theme. Everyone quietly listened while the sound of a beating heart echoed around the room. “That’s it?” someone said, in disbelief. According to Blackford, this year’s theme was not that unusual for the Global Game Jam, which likes to create interesting conceptual challenges. Last year’s theme was an image of a snake, eating its own tail.

Participants formed into teams, and the Jam was on. While most teams worked on digital games, two teams attempted to create board games. Meals were provided to all, and some teams worked late into the wee hours of the morning. The Jam ended with presentations of all games in the Simularium. The atmosphere was weary, but triumphant.

Microventures was created by a 170 series design team last year, and after additional development it has been released to the Google Play Store! 

Get it now here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.studiomu.microventures