Alumni News | Spring 2009

Alumni Leaders in the Industry

With an SMU Guildhall Graduate Degree, It May Only Take 3 Years to Attain Leadership Position in Game Industry

Last fall, as part of an institutional effectiveness program required for national accreditation, we conducted a survey to find out what positions of leadership our alumni are in two to three years after graduation. The results were very impressive... 43 percent of the respondents said they were in a senior or leadership position in the game industry within three years.

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Controlled Chaos Media: Three C2 Alums Start Game Studio in Dallas

Sometimes, the timing is perfect for branching out on one's own. Hunter Woodlee (LD), David Doran-Marshall (LD) and Mike Penrod (AC) from Cohort 2 are opening Controlled Chaos Media, the first studio formed by SMU alumni.

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Alumni Close Up: Drew Murray

Following His Heart in Games, Drew Murray Went From Corporate Attorney to The Guildhall at SMU to Lead Designer at Insomniac Games

Five years ago, Drew Murray was a highly successful corporate attorney in New York making really good money.

But one night, he heard the opening line of Jay Leno's monologue on the "Tonight Show." Leno joked, "At Southern Methodist University, now you can major in video games. Finally, a degree more useless than political science!"

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Career Development Services

Alumni Go Back to School for Career Assistance

Career Development Services at The Guildhall at SMU is not only for graduating students, but also for alumni. Over the last year, several alumni took advantage of expanded career resources offered at SMU.

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Post Mortems

GDC 2009

The Guildhall's annual GDC reception on March 25 at Jillian's @ Metreon was a great social and game business networking success. There were over 50 alumni and 120 game industry friends who attended. The next Guildhall graduating class, Cohort 10, was able to mingle and make industry contacts throughout the evening.

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Cohort 8 Team Game, The Color of Doom, an IGF Student Showcase Finalist

SMU had another IGF student showcase finalist in the 11th annual International Games Festival at 2009 GDC. The Color of Doom was developed by C8 Team Overscope as a single player mod, 3D action-platformer game, developed over five months as a full conversion of Half-Life 2: Episode One.

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Faculty Highlight: Adjunct Professor Colt McAnlis Held Session Entitled HALO WARS: The Terrain of Next-Gen at 2009 GDC

Colt McAnlis, adjunct professor at The Guildhall at SMU and programmer for the former Microsoft Ensemble Studios, held a GDC session in the programming track entitled, "HALO WARS: The Terrain of Next-Gen."

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Game::Business::Law Summit

Second Game::Business::Law Summit Slated for January 27-28, 2010 in Dallas at SMU

DVDs and Audio Downloads of 2009 Panel Sessions Now Available at guildhall.smu.edu

The success of this year's Game:: Business::Law, an international summit on the law and business of video games, has prompted sponsors of the event to begin planning for next year's event by announcing its conference date of January 27-28 in Dallas.

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