Ferrol, 6th of May, 2024. For the third year running, the Torrente Ballester Cultural Centre Chapel will host, on Friday 10 May, from 9:30 a.m. onwards, the Power Up Applied and Persuasive Videogames Conference, organised by the Industrial Campus of the University of A Coruña together with the Polytechnic School of Engineering of Ferrol (EPEF), through the Master’s Degree in Design, Development and Marketing of Video Games, and in collaboration with the Xunta de Galicia and the City Council of Ferrol.
The opening ceremony of the conference will take place at 09:45 a.m. in the chapel of the Torrente Ballester Cultural Centre. Centro Cultural Torrente Ballester, from the reitor of the University of A Coruña, Ricardo Cao; the Coruña, Ricardo Cao; of the concelleiro of Xuventude, Festas, Novas Tecnoloxías e Marca Ferrol, Arán López; and the director of the Campus Industrial Campus of the University of A Coruña, Marcos Míguez. At the presentation, scheduled for 18:30 in the Concepción Arenal Assembly Hall on the Ferrol Industrial Campus, the Vice-Rector of the Ferrol Campus and Social Responsibility, Ana Ares; the director of the Ferrol Polytechnic School of Engineering, Vicente Díaz; and the coordinator of the Master’s Degree in Design, Development and Marketing of Video Games, Luz Castro, will take part in the event.
The first speech of the day, scheduled for 10:00 a.m., will be given by Belén Gómez, founding partner of the video game development company specialised in connecting learning and games Divertifica, who will talk about how video games can improve the world. Afterwards, at 10:45 a.m., there will be a round table on Virtual Reality (VR) with the participation of the creative director of Maxina, Carlos Seijo; the specialist in Production and Marketing of Virtual Reality Projects and member of the Odders Lab team, Verónica Rodríguez; and the technical artist Félix Menéndez. Moderating the panel will be the head of Levels at Merge Games, Cristina G. Aradas. Finally, at 12:45 pm, the narrative director of Tequila Works, Michael Santorum, will speak.
Presentation of the projects of the students of the master’s degree in Design, Development and Marketing of Video Games
In the afternoon, from 16:30 hours, the Concepción Arenal Assembly Hall of the Industrial Campus of Ferrol will host the presentation of two projects carried out by the students of the Master’s Degree in Design, Development and Marketing of Video Games over the last two years. Among the audience there will be numerous experts and professionals of the video film industry from different parts of Spain.
The indie studio Nameless will present What the Hell, a side scrolling game with elements of platforming, 2.5D action and puzzles set in Dante’s infernos. Behind this project are the students of the Polytechnic School of Engineering of Ferrol (EPEF), Lara Fernández Romero, Manuel Fernández Veiga, Natalia Froiz Míguez, Miguel González Obenza, Paula Martínez Taboada, Teresa Pecker Gayarre, Albert Ramírez Rivero and Alberto Tajuelo Real.
On the other hand, the indie studio Piña Colada will present Platyfrog, a 3D adventure and platform game where a platypus called Firu and a frog called Ben, members of two rival civilisations, end up in the Apocalypse Vault, where they must work together to survive. The team is made up of Laura Bey Senra, Andrea Fernández Mariño, Álvaro Hayek Alfonso, Sofía Pelegrín Mellado, Paula Portal Ruíz, Anllelo A. Reina Montañez, Viviana Rodríguez Domínguez and Eduard A. Sánchez Maya, also students at the Ferrol Industrial Campus.
This is not the first time that the students of the Polytechnic School of Engineering of Ferrol (EPEF) present their projects in public. Last January they showed the demos of their videogames at the stand that the University of A Coruña had at the III Xornada de Innovación e Movemento Maker (InnovAmes), organised by the City Council of Ames together with Maiker Faire Galicia. On the 24th, 25th and 26th of May, they will take part in the Expotaku Fair in Coruña.