Press
"Chapman Student Levels Up After Creating a Hit Video Game"
A short feature from Chapman University's newsroom on winning the grand prize at the 2022 IEEE GameSIG Showcase with Kittens with Cannons, and on the game-development program that got me there.
What the article covers
The piece profiles me as a Chapman University Class of 2023 graduate who built Kittens with Cannons through skills gained in Chapman's interdisciplinary game development programming minor, a program spanning the Fowler School of Engineering and Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, with curriculum shaped by industry veterans from studios like Blizzard, Sony, DreamWorks, and the NFL.
It traces my path from starting game development in 2014, to learning Unity from Professor Derek Prate, to the game's grand-prize win at the 2022 IEEE GameSIG Showcase (a prestigious collegiate video game competition), and the studio's plans at the time for an October 2023 Kickstarter with a full release targeted for 2024.
"Before I came to Chapman I didn't know how to use Unity. Gaining that knowledge has been hugely instrumental." — Lucas Torti, quoted in the article
Why it mattered
This feature landed right as Kittens with Cannons was proving itself beyond the classroom. The momentum from that competition win is part of what carried the project into a real public demo, and eventually helped set the direction for founding Bow Tie Cat Studios as an ongoing effort rather than a one-off student project.
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