When in Manila and you see a blue vehicle with the words ‘game van’ on it, there’s no doubt it’s the new vehicle of the iACADEMY. The Game Van is the iACADEMY’s new vehicle which seeks to promote the school’s new course offering called the Bachelor of Science in Game Development.
The iACADEMY’s Game Van is a 126” X 96.5” X 21 ft. van that can house a maximum of 18 people. Inside the van you’ll see 5 units of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 (with one of them having the Kinect feature), 3 units of Sony’s Playstation3 and 3 units of the Nintendo Wii. The selection of games inside the iACADEMY Game Van is varied as the students can choose from games such as TekkenxStreetfighter, Call of Duty, Mario Kart, etc.
The iACADEMY Game Van
I dropped by the iACADEMY campus to meet Ms. Kooky Tuason to talk about this unique van. Along with Mr. Christian Timothy-Sia, via telephone, the pair gave us a few insights on how the iACADEMY Game Van came about. According to Mr. Sia, the Game Van has been thought of last February by iACADEMY’s President and CEO Ms. Vanessa L. Tanco-Cualoping as part of the school’s tenth year anniversary. Another reason why the idea of the Game Van was brought up was to find a means to promote the school’s new Bachelor of Science in Game Development program. Mr. Christian Sia added that the iACADEMY is the first and only school to be offering the BS in Game Development course in the country. He was also quick to add that it was on June 2012 where the school officially launched the iACADEMY Game Van.
Mr. Sia said that their objectives for the iACADEMY Game Van is to bring it to different high schools within the country and expose these students to the world of game development. For him, Game Van could be used to give the high school students a firsthand idea on how to create a game as well as the van itself being an avenue for the students to be more passionate about the video gaming industry. Currently, they are using the popular console games inside the van as a ‘benchmark’ for current iACADEMY students to create their own games for the Game Van.
The iACADEMY Game Van: Side-View
As of press time, Mr. Sia said that the Game Development students are currently working on some games that they would put inside the iACADEMY Game Van in the coming months. As far as finished games were concerned, Ms. Kooky mentioned a certain game called ‘Chirp’, a mobile/deskstop game that was created by a team of iACADEMY graduates. This game, alongside other student-made games are going to be added into the Game Van to entice and encourage the High School students to enroll in the school’s different courses, especially the Game Development course. Currently, Mr. Sia noted that the 2nd year students of the Game Development course are working on a videogame application just in time for Halloween and they hope it would be installed within the Game Van once it’s finished.
Mr. Sia noted that they have plans of putting up a second iACADEMY Game Van in order to cater the increasing requests of schools who want to reserve the van. The iACADEMY is targeting 2013 as the possible launch date of the second Game Van so that they can reach more schools across the nation.
Inside the iACADEMY Van
I had the privilege to not only see the van itself, but also get to play in a couple of its consoles. It was just a brief hour for me and my friends to join the iACADEMY students who were having a good time inside the van. On one end, there were students engrossed on playing NBA 2k12, while on the other side we would see someone tearing up the streets with a game called Need For Speed. Seeing that they were having a good time, me and my companions figured we’d join in on the fun.
We started to play some of the consoles and within minutes, we got into the whole festive atmosphere inside the van. From my point of view, the iACADEMY students were having a ball. However, you would see some of them head out of the van as they’d tell the other they had to go before their next class would start. So while there was a sense of fun inside the iACADEMY Game Van, you could tell that the students who would use it in the campus still had a sense of responsibility and still had their priorities as students straighten out.
A pair of students playing inside the van
The experience in playing inside the ‘Game Van’ was very awesome for this videogame lover. If you’re a student (ESPECIALLY if you’re a videogame fan), you’d surely love going into the iACADEMY Game Van when it hits your campus soon. This writer expresses his approval of the iACADEMY use of the ‘Game Van’ as a means to expose and entice the youth of the country to enroll in their BS in Game Development. iACADEMY’s Game Van is a fun yet educational means for the High School students to be introduced to the realm of Game Development.
When in Manila, look out for the iACADEMY’s ‘Game Van’ around the streets of the Metro. And if you do, I’m sure it’ll be packed by students interested in their new game development course. This writer would like to thank Christian Timothy Sia and Kooky Tuason for being gracious hosts and letting us experience the iACADEMY Game Van that day. Special thanks go to Otep Garcia and Ian Aiclor for joining me in this amazing adventure inside the Game Van.
iACADEMY Students and Staff Members Having a Good Time Inside the Game Van
WIM Photos by: Martin Vicencio and Otep Garcia
iACADEMY
Address: 6764 iAcademy Building, Ayala Avenue, Makati City
Contact numbers: 891-3865, 889-7777 and 0917-971-1661
Website: https://www.iacademy.edu.ph
FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/iAcademy/159469724110329
