Scripps GRID Lab Graduate Student Kellye Blosser receives the Game Developers Conference Award
Kellye Blosser has been writing since kindergarten when she told a story about a green man from a green planet whose mind "explodes" when he visits to earth. As she grew up, she entered (and won) essay contests that allowed her to travel to museums and summer camps. And now, Blosser is the gold award-winner in the Game Narrative Review Competition for the Gaming Developers Conference (GDC) awards in California. Blosser is the first awardee of GDC's Narrative Competition from Scripps College.
“I’m really proud of it and excited because it means I get to go to GDC and talk to people about game narrative, which is something I could talk about for months on end,” said Blosser.
A graduate student in the Communication Media Arts MFA program in the Scripps College of Communication, Blosser teaches storytelling through video games class, which explores how video games tell stories differently than other media such as movies or books.
"I get to study VR, game design, and social activism all at the same time,” Blosser said. “That's why I'm here because this is the only place where I could do that in a university setting."
Blosser is a VR Haptics Developer for the Game Research and Immersive Design (GRID) Lab. She has worked on multiple projects, including Adventure VR, for which she helped design the puzzles and worked on the environment art, such as the Mayan Temples.
"The GRID Lab is proud of Kellye and we look forward to what she does in the future," said John Bowditch, director of the GRID Lab.
For the contest, Blosser wrote about one of her favorite games: Uncharted 4. The essay discusses the way the game explores the main character’s personal life.
"So you see his marriage falling apart," Blosser said. "And you see his relationship with his brother and all of the feelings of guilt he has for letting his brother down. And you see him fight with his best friend and things like that, that you don't typically see in games. I’m really excited to have games do that more. This is part of why I wrote about this game.”
Blosser plans to move to LA after graduation and is seeking employment in anything related to the storytelling aspect of video games. She said she is grateful for her experience at Scripps College because of the adaptability in its curriculum.
"We as students right now are the ones who are pushing the envelope in terms of what these programs can do and where we can go with it, like with the new esports curriculum," said Kellye. "It’s keeping Scripps at the forefront, and exploring and listening to the industry on what they’re trying to do and it’s really exciting.”
The GRID Lab specializes in game development as well as VR/AR technology. The students in the program continuously push game development and virtual reality application in Ohio and around the world! Check our more here!