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IT Carlow, 21st October 2015 4:29 P.M, Dr. Daire O’ Broin, who leads the IT Carlow gameCORE research group, sets a challenge to 4th Year students of Game Development, ‘to develop innovative video game mechanics honouring Back to the Future Day’. October 21, 2015 4:29 P.M was the destination time arrived at by Marty McFly in the classic movie Back to the Future II.
In celebrating Back to the Future day, students gathered around a DeLorean DMC-12 in IT Carlow’s hangar, to review the actual mechanics that featured in the movie trilogy. Dr. O’ Broin said “events are taking place globally to celebrate this very special day which is also inspiring our students to research improvements in game design and gameplay mechanics”
Carlow has a very specific connection with the DeLorean DMC-12. In 1981 John DeLorean began manufacturing the sports car at a plant at Dunmurry, near Belfast in Northern Ireland. The car had a stainless steel body. The stainless panels for the DeLorean were all produced at the Läpple factory in Carlow. The panels were transferred by truck to Belfast. On at least one occasion the DMC (DeLorean Motor Corporation) needed panels urgently and sent a helicopter to Carlow to pick them up.
Ken Power, Lecturer in Real World Modelling at IT Carlow, has dissected time travel mechanics as part of an Intensive Intellectual Property Project, examining games such as Braid and Rachet and Clank. Power said “time travel simulation in games really aids the enjoyment of game play as gamers jump across storylines and storyline progression waypoints”
Working in teams and using multiplatform tools, students are examining time travel mechanics and developing novel mechanisms for five new titles. Potentially the finished games could be appearing on platforms such as the Valve Corporation’s recently announced STEAM MACHINE.
