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Gearbox recruits 16 SMU Guildhall grads for VR project

Sixteen graduates from SMU Guildhall, Southern Methodist University's game dev focused graduate program, are headed to Gearbox to work on an unannounced VR title following graduation this summer.

Alissa McAloon, Publisher

May 12, 2017

1 Min Read
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Sixteen graduates from SMU Guildhall, Southern Methodist University’s game development focused graduate program, are headed to Gearbox to work on an unannounced VR title following their graduation this summer.

The student team of 16 notably created SMU Guildhall's first VR game, an HTC Vive title called Mouse Playhouse, in five months. That experience, coupled with Gearbox's longstanding relationship with Guildhall, prompted Gearbox head Randy Pitchford to custom-build a team to fit the soon-to-be graduates. 

“In this year’s graduating cohort, I am very excited that such an amazing group of talent has emerged from the program prepared to hit the ground running with research and development in Virtual Reality,” Pitchford told SMU. 

Mario Rodriguez, the producer behind SMU Guildhall's first VR title and one of the 16 joining Gearbox, previously detailed the team's experience creating Mouse Playhouse in a blog on Gamasutra. Rodriguez will be joined by artists Devanshu Bishnoi, Nina Davis, Taylor Gallagher, Taylor McCart, and Mace Mulleady; designers Michael Feffer, Alexandre Foures, Steve Kocher, Jacob Lavender, and Sam Pate; and programmers Taylor Bishop, Nicholas Dorbin, Benjamin D. Gibson, Clay Howell, and K. Komal Shashank.

About the Author

Alissa McAloon

Publisher, GameDeveloper.com

As the Publisher of Game Developer, Alissa McAloon brings a decade of experience in the video game industry and media. When not working in the world of B2B game journalism, Alissa enjoys spending her time in the worlds of immersive sandbox games or dabbling in the occasional TTRPG.

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