Teachers and students collaborated to design an original game, entering it in the Geekway to the West design contest. Geekway to the West is an annual gaming convention held here in St. Louis.
Caroline Abel ‘19, Hope Abel ‘19 and Alaina Baumohl ‘19 attended the Geekway convention and demonstrated the game, called Blaze! Here’s the premise of the game:
A spark. A flame. Combustion. In the center of town, flames lick the side of an old warehouse. Unseen, those flames build until they can longer be ignored, until it is already too late. The town, and you, leap into action but resources are limited and many buildings are in danger. Your only saving grace is that, for now, there is no wind. An eerie calm in the troposphere contrasts with the chaos on the streets. For now.
You look up. There are six buildings standing between the fire and your house. Some are more flammable than others; some contain unfortunate cats in need of rescue; some might need to burn if you are to keep the flames for your doorstep. How far will you go to protect your home (and those cats)?
Geekway to the West attendees were invited to try out all the games in the competition, filling out comment sheets to record impressions. Judges also played each game entered, using their experience and the comment cards to determine winners.
Upper School English Teacher Tex Tourais reported, “Our team presented well. We got to the Presentation Round but did not make it to the final four.”
Mr. Tourais created the game and handled graphic design, while Maya Pinz ’20 created the illustrations. Caroline Abel ’19 & Teacher Justin Little were responsible for development. Ms. Stephanie McNally from the Development office tested the game for the team.
Even though Blaze! did not win, we’re proud of the team for the work they did to create and develop the game. Teachers and students, you all are on fire!