Playing videogames is one of the most popular hobbies in the world, but people are becoming interested in the process behind the screen as well.
Degrees in video game design have become more widespread, and graduates in that field are highly sought after. It’s no surprise that the U’s Video Game Design program was ranked No. 1 in the world. As the semester comes to an end, senior students in the EAE program were required to create a video game. One group of students got their game, “Year of the Gear,” published on sites such as the Google Play Store and the Amazon App Store. They’re also in the process of getting it released on the Apple App Store.
Lead designer/team lead Chris Rippey and lead programmer Albert Tom talked about the success of “Year of the Gear.” It is a physics puzzler that captures all of the fun of a platform game, but without a jump button. In the game itself, you play as a single gear that works in an ancient Mayan calendar with the goal of repairing, rewinding and reinventing the clock. This exhilarating game allows the player to embrace the role of being a cog in the machine during an era long forgotten.
Rippey and Tom enjoyed the group work and are grateful for the program that allowed them to pursue the success of publishing a game they created.
“Working in a larger group like this is a great way to bridge the gap between school projects and industry teams,” Rippey said. “I’m still in awe that we were able to fully publish a game on our own, through our own company, and it’s the best feeling ever. Over the past eight months of development, working with the unbelievably talented and gifted classmates, has been nothing short of amazing.”
Creating videogames have become very popular in today’s world, so one goal for Rippey and Tom’s group was to make a game that stood out out from the r
“What sets us apart is the level of care that we put into our game and the fact that, despite being a student game made on nearly no budget, it is visually stunning and mechanically very different from most games,” Tom said.
Rippey said, “I believe we were able to achieve a certain level of “new” with Year of the Gear, and we were able to portray that through how we used the mechanics we implemented and through our art style.”
Rippey also said he hasn’t come across a game since Sonic the Hedgehog that used the same physics system as “Year of the Gear.”
“We took away a platformer’s main mechanic, a jump feature, and replaced it with momentum and trajectories in order to transverse the levels,” he said.
With “Year of the Gear,” they were able to embrace the Aztec/Mayan aesthetics. They delved into a culture that “has been forgotten through the pages of history.”
“Year of the Gear” can be downloaded from the Google Play store at and the Amazon app store.