Garnet Hertz - Teaching - Examples of Student Work

Project: THE POLLUTINATOR (Computer Game)

Course: This project was built in "Computer Games as Art, Culture & Technology" at the University of California Irvine in Spring 2007. This course is an interdisciplinary first year undergraduate course that combines media studies, digital arts and computer science.
Project Members: Jeffrey Wang, Nicholas Law, Leslie Lazaro, and Darya Claussen.
Concept: The Pollutinator is a game where you play an environmental warrior armed with biodegradable bullets and a heavily weaponized Prius hybrid vehicle to save the earth from pollution and environmental destruction. In the process, the game humorously highlights the cliché of video game violence, and raises the problems that this cliché poses to the serious games movement.
Gameplay: The Pollutinator features two levels:
1. In the first level, you control a weaponized Toyota Prius Hybrid car down a busy freeway. Your job is to destroy all gas-guzzling Hummer SUVs in your path with biodegradable bullets or an electrical railgun. Be careful to not destroy school busses or fuel efficient vehicles, though.
2. In the second level, your job is to protect an old-growth forest by shooting an endless stream of lumberjacks armed with chainsaws.
Technical Details: Programmed in Java.
Download: This game is available for free download at http://www.conceptlab.com/teaching/pollutinator.jar (8.9M Java application.) Requires Java.
Example Screenshots:

Garnet Hertz, 2008
http://www.conceptlab.com/