January 19, 2022
Showcasing the best gaming work of students, alumni, and industry professionals through interactive sessions, displays, and tournament competitions, Shawnee State University’s annual Shawnee Game Conference (SGC), recognized three students this past year for their pitches and presentations at the conference.
Parth Sujit Naik received the Jack Bohm Art Portfolio Award, Makarand Subhash Lahane received the Melanie Gordon Game Marketing Pitch Award, and Lily Gresham received the Shawnee Game Design Award presented by the Shawnee Student Research Experience.
Awarded for his student professionalism and creativity, Makarand Subhash Lahane is thankful for the opportunity to showcase his senior project at the conference and be recognized with the award.
“It means a lot,” he said. “It was a great event and the entire process of working on the pitch was amazing. This helped me gain a better practical understanding of my project.”
Majoring in Digital Simulation & Game Engineering, Lahane’s game pitch included a full stack application to support a collaborative platform for playing and learning chess.
SGC hosts several industry professionals who bring a wealth of knowledge to the conference every year with talks including computer science, character design, animation, production, development, and much more. As a senior, Lahane has enjoyed the talks from experts to help encourage him as he prepares to graduate later this year.
“My favorite thing about the Shawnee Game Conference is talks from experts,” he said. “I really enjoy them. I remember during the 2019 Shawnee Game Conference I attended Paul Yost’s ‘Verlet Integration’ talk. I was really inspired after that talk, and that also motivated me to work on a couple of games using Verlet Integration.”
To learn more about the annual Shawnee Game Conference at Shawnee State University, visit shawneegamecon.com.