Professor Murray: First, congratulations on the success of Re:Fresh. I see you have over 100 positive reviews on Steam so far, and I know that’s just the beginning.
Thank you so much for agreeing to chat with me, especially this week, when you’ve got some pressing business to attend to. We’ll get to that in a moment.
Let’s start with introductions – who is Merge Conflict? What year in school are you? Where are you from?
Melody Geiger, Class of ‘24 El Paso, TX. I’m the Project Manager.
Will Sords, Class of ‘23 (December), Fairfax, VA. I’m the Audio Designer.
Joseph Horak, Class of ‘24, El Paso, TX. I’m the Narrative Designer and Writer.
Connor Blankenship, Class of ‘23. Seguin, TX. I’m the Systems/Technical Designer.
Karina Teruya, Class of ‘24. Coppell, TX. I’m the Art Lead.
Ethan Godwin, Class of ‘23, Durham, NC. Ethan couldn’t be at the interview today, but he’s the Level Designer.
Professor Murray: So, I love a good story–Can you tell me the story of this project?
Connor: It all started in SDP (Senior Design Project). I had worked with all these people. I could vouch for all these people’s work. I knew we would be a strong team.
Joseph: Connor showed us a yogurt ad.
Professor Murray: Wait. Really?
Connor: Yes, I had previously taken a class in sustainability, and that was something, with my political beliefs, that was important to me. That class helped me look toward a future where we work in harmony with nature. People are pretty pessimistic about climate change, and this is a pretty optimistic point of view, so I thought, let’s work toward this brighter future.
Professor Murray: That’s great, but why the yogurt commercial? What were you drawn to?
Connor: [Pulls up an animated Chobani yogurt commercial in which an idealized sustainable future is depicted.] I had never experienced solar punk as a genre. The technology there, combined with nature, was super cool–walking over plants and you see an AR HUD [Augmented Reality Head Up Display] pop up–I saw that and thought that would be so interesting to explore.
Will: Plus, the visuals of the yogurt ad really worked with Karina’s art style. [Everyone laughs.]
Connor: I just wanted to make a solar punk game. [More laughter.]
Professor Murray: Can you explain solar punk for people who might not know?
Will: Nature and tech come together.
Connor: Tech is used sustainably and works in harmony with plants to sustain humanity.
Professor Murray: I love that message. How close is the final result of Re:Fresh to what you initially imagined? What, if any, changes or compromises did you have to make?
Joseph: I think it grew.
Will: Well, yeah, it’s longer.
Karina: In terms of experience, in SDP, it was a 30 minute run time. But now, we have tripled the length of the game to 90 mins. But in terms of the idea, I’d say we stuck to the vision.
Professor Murray: AET [Arts and Entertainment Technologies] is a major that really emphasizes preparing industry professionals. This project has been on a real journey, extending far beyond the bounds of the semester in which you first started working on it. Can you comment on the ways in which your coursework prepared you for this experience? What specific aspects of your coursework helped you?
Will: SDP helped us a lot with the documentation which was integral to keeping us on track. Also, all those documents ended up helping us with internships and job searches because we knew how to do stand ups and how to talk to people. I’d say it helped us prepare in that sense… Looking back, the soft skills were probably the most helpful. We know how things should work and flow together.
Professor Murray: It’s interesting you say that because I feel like, in addition to the tech skills, AET students really set themselves apart by way of superior teamwork and problem solving skills. I say that a lot.
Connor: Yes, AET as a whole helped us learn how to work on teams. [Team unanimously nods in affirmation.]
Joseph: Games are a volatile artform. It’s almost impossible to teach us when things evolve constantly. Best practices change and evolve. Programs update. Learning the basics of how games work and how those disciplines fit into the process is definitely the biggest takeaway.
Melody: We get a wide range of skills. We naturally fell into our roles on the team with our shared background. We had a good foundation of skills for how to make a game.
Karina: Being well-rounded, learning all the disciplines, these things helped us understand how they work together. Even though we are specialized in our roles, we know what each of us is meant to be doing, which helps a lot.
Joseph: The first game I ever made here and the last game I ever made here were both made in Professor D.S. Cohen’s classes. It was honestly a full-circle moment for my AET career.
Professor Murray: That’s kind of sweet. Professor Cohen will love to hear that, I bet. You took this project to GDC in San Francisco last year. How did that happen? And, how did the team prepare for that level of exposure?
Will: Well, it started at a local meet up for Austin game developers. Professor Tyler Coleman was there and mentioned GDC Play, where you can essentially buy a booth to showcase your indie game. So I reached out to GDC and spoke to Raf Vallin there, and he liked the game and suggested that we actually pitch to the AET admin team to see if we could get some support. So we pitched to Professor Cohen, who was our SDP professor at that time.
Joseph: This was around the time of registration, and we found out that Indie Game Studio was being offered the next semester and that we could continue working on the project.
Melody: We decided we were going to GDC but didn’t know how we would swing it. So we pitched to Professor Cohen, and he acted as our liaison to [AET Department Chair] Professor Michael Baker. Then they brought in all the decision makers–like financial people, probably legal people, I’m not even sure, but it went all the way up to the Dean of [the College of Fine Arts], and all of them were on board.
Karina: We also started fundraising. We sold Re:Fresh t-shirts. We were set on doing Indie Game Studio as a team in the spring semester. We didn’t know, even in January and February, if we could go to GDC, but we did know that whether we went or not would impact our project timeline significantly. We had to really hustle getting together promo info, figuring out the booth set up, and doing all the preliminary requirements to launch on Steam.
Professor Murray: Sounds pretty hectic.
Connor: Yeah, that’s also when we started showcasing outside of UT– January 2023. That month was critical in the timeline. We showcased and got really good feedback. Then, we set our timeline for the launch. Like Melody said, we started fundraising to go [to GDC] without knowing if it was possible.
Melody: If the school hadn’t committed to supporting us, this would have been a huge financial hardship. We needed all the things–a banner, business cards, new monitors, the booth, etc. We later found out that Professor Baker used some of his discretionary funds to support us. It was a huge break.
Professor Murray: That must have felt like a big relief. What happened as a result of GDC?
Melody: Incredibly, the people from Unity approached us and asked us to showcase at Develope:Brighton in the U.K. So we got the opportunity to showcase internationally, which was completely unexpected, and we were extremely honored to do so. Because of that event, we are now working with Negative Karma [a co-development studio that specializes in porting] on a new project, which was the catalyst for forming what is now Merge Conflict Studio.
Professor Murray: Amazing. Then what happened?
Melody: Most recently we entered the Freed Family Pitch Competition (FFPC), which is an endowed competition through the Herb Kelleher Entrepreneurship Center here on campus. We found out last weekend that we made it to the final round. This Thursday, October 26th, we are doing the final pitch for up to $20K in start up funds.
Professor Murray: I saw the video of the team receiving the news. It was legitimately thrilling. What has that experience taught you?
Melody: It was a lot of leaning on UT resources and game development communities. It’s different making a game than making a business. None of us have business experience.
Professor Murray: Yes, I bet that felt daunting. How did you navigate that?
Joseph: We talked to anyone who would talk to us. [Team nods vigorously.]
Karina: One of the things that sets AET apart from the other game programs is that it is situated in UT. This university is huge and has so many resources.
Will: Now that I see how much other stuff UT has to offer, it’s amazing to me how much student support there is.
Professor Murray: I recently had a table full of sophomores in my Intro to Narrative class talking about “Team Re:Fresh,” which I think is how a lot of your fellow AET students know you. Anyhow, this table of sophomores were speaking of the Re:Fresh project very aspirationally, as in, they want to use their Senior Design or Capstone project to get into GDC and follow Merge Conflict’s trajectory. How does that make you feel and what words of wisdom can you impart?
Connor: That actually inspires me.
Karina: That’s sweet to know what we have worked on is a point of inspiration for other students. I think figuring out what you want to do and pushing through and just doing it is the thing. Don’t be afraid to reach out. Do game jams and try new things. I feel like if you know what you’re looking for, it will make the opportunities more clear. Finally, I guess I’d say: explore your personal passions in your class assignments whenever you can. [Team wholeheartedly agrees.]
Professor Murray: That’s really great advice.
Connor: Yeah, try everything–it’s hard to know exactly what discipline you want to work in without trying it first.
Joseph: Go past your coursework to get more experiences. I’ve done a lot of game jams and sought other opportunities. I’ve made a lot of really not-so-great games. I’d say: get all your bad ideas out first. Something I realized in this project is that I spent a lot of time as a student looking for shortcuts to get good at things. I now realize that there are no shortcuts. I actually feel that in terms of improving your craft, repetition is the only way to improve. I think that practice is how you intuitively figure out that you like the medium. I actually like making games more than I like playing them now. [Team nods.]
Professor Murray: “There are no shortcuts” is simple but solid counsel.
Connor: I am stubborn, but it’s important to know when to let go and move on and make something new because the next thing is going to be way better.
Karina: Starting off with a big game project is not the way to go. Start with a small project and learn what you want to do. Once you get that great idea, you can build on that. Finally, don’t be afraid to reach out and ask questions.
Melody: It’s humbling to know that sophomores are watching the progression of this project. This makes me want to keep doing better. My personal goal is to make things that help people. If what we made here helps people, that’s what I want to keep doing.
Professor Murray: I love the impact you’re making. You’re showing the younger students how to make the most of their time here in AET. Okay, Merge Conflict, I think I speak for the whole department when I say, we are so proud of you and wish you all the best on Thursday at the finals. I’ll be there to cheer you on.
You can cheer on Merge Conflict this Thursday at the AT&T Center. RSVP here
In the meantime, readers of this interview can play Re:Fresh here.