Media Contact:
Dr. R. Michael Young, 919/513-3038
Anna Rzewnicki, 919/513-2985
Mick Kulikowski, News Services, 919/515-8387

Nov. 6, 2003

Gaming Workshop, Demos to be Held at NC State This Weekend

The first annual Unreal University, sponsored by the Center for Digital Entertainment at North Carolina State University’s Department of Computer Science, Epic Games, NVIDIA, Atari and AMD, will feature a mixture of demonstrations, developer presentations and hands-on tutorials covering a wide range of topics in the computer gaming industry, which now tops $10 billion in sales yearly.

The two-day tutorial is slated for Saturday, Nov. 8, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 9, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Most events will take place on the main floor of Withers Hall on NC State’s main campus.

Media coverage is invited.

Participants will have the opportunity to sample Epic’s latest version of Unreal Tournament; a large projection screen will display all the action. Particularly visual workshops will be held throughout both days, including techniques for animating game characters at 3 p.m. on Saturday and 11:30 on Sunday.

The workshop expects to draw about 200 gaming enthusiasts, ages 17 to 40, who are coming to learn techniques for creating their own modifications – new games or add-ons created with tools from the original game – to the Unreal Tournament 3-D action computer game by using the Unreal game engine.

Dr. Michael Young, assistant professor of computer science at NC State and director of the Center for Digital Entertainment, an informal research center, will be available to discuss related gaming research. Special presentations by staff from Epic Games will showcase upcoming products and technologies. Key contacts from Epic and NVIDIA will be available for interviews on the growing interest in gaming and new products.

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