The Daily Reveille - September 9, 2015

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THUNDERSTORMS

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Reveille

IN THIS ISSUE • Sigma Alpha Epsilon returns to campus after suspension, page 3

The Daily

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

lsureveille.com/daily

AFTER HOUR S

thedailyreveille

• New local bar The Bandit opens on East Boyd Drive, page 9 • Opinion: Gov.’s race key to higher education’s future, page 12

@lsureveille

HIGHER EDUCATION

Leaders prepare for new budget woes

LAB LLC

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BY SAM KARLIN @samkarlin

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showing how the game will work.” After Hours Lab has a tentative plan to release “Space Shrimp” at the end of spring 2016. Jones said he hopes to sell the game on mobile devices for $3, giving team members a percentage of the profit, though money is not the only motivator. “We want to use industry standard tools to learn how we can do professional developments,” Jones said. “So when we’re looking for jobs, we can say we’ve done this before.” The group decided to create a mobile game instead of a console or computer-based platformer because it is more cost effective. Jones said it costs about $6,000 for the console

Higher education leaders find themselves limbo this fall as they prepare for a gubernatorial election, a new crop of legislators and an ambiguous budget deficit. Higher education evaded devastating cuts estimated at $600 million during the summer’s legislative session, and LSU President F. King Alexander said Aug. 20 that university system heads will meet every week this semester to discuss funding strategies and the gubernatorial candidates’ platforms regarding higher education. “We’re hanging out there on a ledge,” Alexander said. “And we want to make sure we work with our legislative leaders to understand that we have already been cut dramatically to the point where we are.” A web of forecasting steps are necessary for an accurate budget prediction, said Board of Regents Deputy Commissioner for Finance and Administration Barbara Goodson. Goodson said the Board did not have enough time last school year to deal with the higher education crisis, and committees will be required this year to make assumptions about important state revenue factors, such as oil prices and personal income growth, to estimate upcoming revenue. “We’re very dependent upon these other steps and other parties meeting to issue these forecasts,” Goodson said. She said Louisiana’s higher education institutions, as well as grade schools, currently are not fully funded, and higher education is particularly in need of money for deferred maintenance.

see AFTER HOURS, page 15

see HIGHER ED, page 15

GAME ON Students, alumni form video game development company BY JOSHUA JACKSON @Joshua_Jackson_ Students often pick up summer projects such as visiting a new country or learning to play an instrument, but LSU physics and computer science senior Craig Jones had another idea: starting a video game company. Jones and his team of LSU students and alumni came together to form After Hours Lab LLC, an independent video game development company stationed in the Louisiana Technology Park, a local nonprofit business incubator. Jones said he enjoyed the experience of developing a video game as a class assignment and wanted to see what it would be like to create a full-length game with multiple levels, music and marketing. He approached his now lead designer, Michael Morgan, with a plan, and Morgan developed the idea for their first game, a mobile platformer called “Space Shrimp.” Platformers are a style of game in which a player must control a character through an obstacle course of enemies, holes in the ground and other obstructions, similar to what is seen in the “Mario” and “Sonic the Hedgehog” franchises. The team grew as Jones approached classmates he had worked with before, including digital art senior Cameron Bragg. Bragg then brought on his friend and fellow digital art senior Tylar Spencer, and both now serve as designers for After Hours Lab. “Because we’re into the semester, we have to move a little more deliberately than we did over the summer when we just did a few things here and there,” Jones said. “We’re going to use this semester to build the mechanics and the engine of the game. By the end of the year, we should have five to 10 levels

Career Expo Today!

Geaux Get Hired!

Volume 120 · No. 13

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ABIGAIL SMITHSON / The Daily Reveille

(From left) Digital art seniors Tylar Spencer, Cameron Bragg and computer science and physics senior Craig Jones are in the process of developing their own video game entitled ‘Space Shrimp’ in the After Hours Lab LLC.

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING

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