Events and Celebrations

Frag Fest is a twice-annual event where the DAGD community plays games, learns and competes in friendly competition. The founding event in 2005 was student conceived and driven and has helped DAGD grow into a thriving community of gamers, artists and animators.

Interleaving with homework, we have an evening video game night, Industry panel, a board game night, art jam and the culminating Frag Fest competition where we join in the Global Game Jam or our DAGD art challenge.

Ferris Frag Fest began with an idea, the idea that students and faculty needed some fun and relaxation at the end of the semester. The event was conceived in the fall of 2004 by Jessica Plowman, a freshman just coming into the program at the time. The concept would remain just an idea until the fall of 2005 with the creation of the International Game Developers Association Ferris State University Game Development Club by Jennifer Bennett. With the help of the IGDA the first Ferris Frag Fest took place at the end of the fall semester gathering students together with the promise of a competitive gaming tournament with prizes and the chance to take on the professors in the Frag Your Prof event.

With each passing semester the Ferris Frag Fest continues grow and prosper gaining new sponsorship from both local and national businesses. The Ferris Frag Fest has become a tradition among both students and faculty and will continue to grow as an event well into the future.

24 hour Animation Challenge.

We participate in an international animation challenge. The 24 hour animation challenge, hosted by Aubrey Mintz of Cal State University Long Beach hosts nearly 200 virtual teams. Ferris has accepted the challenge and enjoys a weekend of animation and teamwork every September.

Game Developer’s Conference – Experiential Learning

Every spring DAGD faculty and students venture out to the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco. 30,000 geeks like us gather to review where we have been and discover where we are going as an industry. Usually 20-30 people travel to this week-long immersion into the games industry. While we are there, we often visit studios such as Pocket Gems (https://pocketgems.com), Pixar (www.pixar.com) and Zynga (www.zynga.com). Students get to see the inside of the industry and help them on a path to realize their dreams.

DAGD students visit the PIXAR campus in Emeryville. The Wargaming studios was another popular site for a business tour during the GDC.

Art Prize Crawl

The Digital Animation and Game Design program is located on both Big Rapids and Grand Rapids campuses. Our Grand Rapids campus is on the ‘Art Prize’ circuit and we participate in

We have partnered with the State of Michigan’s Film Office as we worked to promote the Animation and Game industry in Michigan at the Game Developers conference in San Francisco. DAGD students helped staff the State of Michigan booth and promote Ferris as a significant presence in the industry

the largest public art competition in the world. Our students in Grand Rapids can walk among the art and learn from guided tours and ‘art scavenger hunts’.

Learn more about ArtPrize here; http://www.artprize.org/

Michigan Career Quest

We give back to our community and exhibit at the Michigan Career Quest at Devos Convention Hall in Grand Rapids. Over 5000 high school students attend this dynamic event that shows a diverse set of careers students can enter. Our student participate and staff this exciting one day event learning what its like to be on ‘the other side’ of a trade show table.

Students show off their projects and interact with their audience.

Ferris Media Festival.

We participate in the School of Digital Media Ferris Media Festival. This one day seminar brings Hollywood and San-Franscisco to West Michigan. It’s an open door event on our Big Rapids campus that High School students are welcome to attend.

Educators and Students! Please call the School of Digital Media at Ferris if you would like to join us this year.

Brent Howard shows off his game project ‘Rad’. He has been working and iterating on it for three years.

High School Students attending Career Quest at Devos Hall in 2017 fascinated by the DAGD Virtual Reality experience. Faculty member Nick Pattison led the initiative this year that had over 5000 regional students attend.

( from our 2017 event – check our schedule for current dates, times and content)

West Michigan Creative Expo

At the end of the Spring semester, Ferris helps to host the Michigan Creative Expo in Grand Rapids. http://michigancreativeexpo.com/

• An exhibition for the creative industries and creative talent active within the state of Michigan.

• This event brings together creative suppliers, designers, artists and leading organizations into one space to support networking, collaboration, and the generation of new opportunities. The 2017 Michigan Creative Expo - West event is free and is open to the public on May 4th from 6-9 p.m. at Ferris State University’s Grand Rapids Campus located in Grand Rapids Community College's Wisner-Bottrall Applied Technology Center.

• A wide array of creative fields will be on display that include, but not limited to, Digital Art and Animation, Architectural Visualization, Film and Video, Interaction Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Marketing, Game Design, and Audio Engineering. In a trade show fashion exhibitors will

showcase their creative capabilities and provide technical demonstrations. Attendees can expect to learn about products and services from Michigan based organizations and about opportunities in the creative industry. They will also enjoy networking and camaraderie among fellow creatives.

DAGD summer camp The Digital Animation and Game Design Summer Camp is a one week day camp that introduces

high school students to a career in animation and game design. Students are brought into the classroom and tutored in software tool

During the summer camp week, students have the opportunity to learn from instructors and students in the fields of Digital Animation and Game Design and Software Engineering. Learners are exposed to the

latest software tools used by industry professionals. They are challenged to push their minds and technical skills to heights greater than they may have thought possible! Students end the week with either a interactive 3D level they have created or an 3D animation. Those who find the introductory week to their liking, are encouraged to take the second ‘advanced’ course to take things to the next level. All profits from DAGD summer camp are added to a special scholarship fund that helps DAGD students in need.

Mosaic Film Festival

DAGD sponsors seminars such as the Mosaic Film Experience that served over 2000 students in 2015 and 2016.

Program coodinator David Baker and student Sammi Kunz works with the students creating an interactive stop motion film at Mosaic Film Experience workshop.