GameFest at Rensselaer is an annual celebration of creativity and innovation in digital games, with a student showcase and competition, music performances, and presentations from veteran game designers, critics, scholars, and indie developers.
Since 2003, GameFest has grown into a regional event that brings together game design students from schools throughout the Northeast, with a competition judged by industry experts. Talks and panels include topics from serious games and entrepreneurship to deep design questions and the democratization of independent game development. Music performances range from music made with repurposed game consoles to an orchestra performing classical arrangements of music from games.
GameFest is presented by Rensselaer’s Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences Program in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. The event is hosted at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), an architecturally stunning research and arts center dedicated to advancing the interaction of arts, science, and technology.