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UCF/FIEA-built video game racking up downloads, strong reviews

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The video game “Wick,” built by students at UCF’s Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, has a dark look, a simple premise – and it’s adorable.

An anthropomorphic candle navigates a cathedral, its wick and flame serving as its life force, as it tries to finish a task its fallen master could not complete.

Then the monster shows up.

“Wick” is a roughly 20-minute adventure that puts players in the role of the cleverly named candle Jean Wick.

The fiery protagonist plays a cat-and-mouse game with a gnarly, gruesome-sounding and -looking demon with a severe case of the hatreds for this little guy.

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Watch: Interview with FIEA director, who helped lead development of Ultima Online

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Ben Noel was part of a team that would develop a video game that has a special place in the industry’s history.

Ultima Online was released in 1997 as one of the first massively multiplayer online role playing games while Noel was part of Electronic Arts’ Origin Studios, which created the title.

He was lured by the appeal of trying to create a networked world that connected hundreds of thousands of players to each other.

“That sounded a lot different than a video game,” he said.

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Orange County Library System opens 1st game jam

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The Orange County Library System on Thursday hosted the opening of its first-ever video game jam, as roughly 15 local gamers and developers opened the four-day event.

The group will spend the weekend through Sunday morning building a video game from scratch at the library’s high-tech downtown Orlando Melrose Center.

Melrose Center’s Juan Rivera said he launched the game jam after attending others in the city, including one hosted by the independent video game group Indienomicon.

“The idea of everybody working together to make a game within 48 hours, that builds the community,” he said.

Overall, six games were pitched on Thursday, with those in attendance splitting into teams that will work on them throughout the weekend.

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