Estonian video game and extended reality developers gathered the annual Computer Graphics EXPO at the 24th of January to showcase their latest projects, meet each other and aspiring students, and just spend a fun Friday afternoon with each other. There was a record number of 12 registered companies, associations, and educational institutions. From our side, we showcased nine best student projects and ongoing thesis works. The second half of the day saw seven engaging presentations about where to study game development, what is the future of XR, and the latest interesting computer graphics techniques.
The Student District in room 2006 featured some of the best student course project from last semester. The video game Vebun is all about playing the role of a blacksmith tasked with quickly making and supplying different weapons. Of course, weapon blacksmithing might not be appealing for everyone. But what certainly is, is building houses for cute animals in New Neighbors. The games Frog Lake and codename OUTbound were from our dedicated project course. From the computer graphics side, one could see an artistic visualization of the simulation of slime growth in Slimulation and the many implemented computer graphics effects in the Dynamic Day-Night Cycle project. One could also interact with immersive visuals in the ongoing thesis project RefleXionS.
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In the room 2007, visitors could try our virtual reality projects DeltaVR and MAST3D.
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The Education Street introduced the wonderful student works and study programs of Tartu Art School (3D Designer) and Tallinn University (Digital Learning Games).
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The visitors who made top scores in Tiksu Toksu (the last year’s Tartu-themed UT Pro Game Jam 2024 winner!) could win handcrafted rare Tiksu-themed magnets. Almost all the magnets got awarded to the skilled Tiksu Toksu players.
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Next to that was the Estonian cult-classic game series Hackers World. The authors of the series celebrated the 25th anniversary of their first game by showing the games on 25-year-old hardware! As Hackers World games are in Estonian, the developers got interviewed by the YouTube channel covering Estonian video games, Pait Gaming.
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Speaking of retro, one could find the Alien Retro Games booth to play some really wonderful retro-style pixel art video games or just admire the algorithmic pixel art of John Avila.
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On the Mobile Avenue, there were two mobile game studios from our graduates. CrosscutHub showcased their latest game Crossroads, and Morsakabi brought their main games Total Destruction, Logic Puzzle Kingdom, and Tic Tac Toe Logic.
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When the visitors ended up in the VR Alley, they were welcomed by the wonderful historical experiences of Blueray, newest technological solutions showcased by EEVR, and the high-intensity fighting game Vreken developed by Acode Studios.
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The day continued with presentations from Tartu Science Park, EEVR, Tallinn University (Digital Learning Games), Alien Retro Games, and a student presentation about Rendering the Solar System.
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The day ended with two main presentations. Our resident computer graphics master, Ats Kurvet, explained the technology behind the rendering in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The final presentation was from our lab’s lead, Raimond Tunnel, who did a fireside (with a real low-tech fire) chat about developing the CGLearn learning environment for the past decade.
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We are very grateful to all our participants and visitors. We hope all of you enjoyed the expo, found new inspiration from each other, made new contacts, and had a truly good time!
See you next expo!
Photos by Olevus Art:
