Campus Currents

Students Assist Pastor
in Vision of Evangelistic Video Game

Ever wanted to walk through the Garden of Eden or look inside Noah’s Ark? A new computer game under development will give you a virtual chance to do just that.

Two Walla Walla College junior technology majors, Ron and Randy Wentland, are creating the artwork for the game, currently under the working title “Bible Lands.”

Using a program called 3d Studio Max, the Wentland brothers will create the graphics, scenes, and visual environment for the game. The project will provide the students with valuable and practical experience as graphic artists and designers.

Players of the game will control a character who travels through the Bible, from Eden to the New Jerusalem, exploring three-dimensional representations of locations such as Noah’s Ark, Egypt, Mt. Sinai, and the Old Testament sanctuary. Details of the great controversy between Christ and Satan will be interwoven in the plot, and when players finish exploring a particular location, they will have to answer a few questions to be able to proceed to the next location.

According to Kevin Wilfley, project leader and pastor of the Hermiston and Heppner Seventh-day Adventist churches, “This is an effort to use contemporary media of our time to reveal the character of God and His salvation of a lost world.”

Pastors today compete with an environment filled with entertainment aimed at stimulating and holding the attention of young people. This game, sponsored by the Upper Columbia Conference (UCC), will allow the church to reach children and their families in a new, interactive format, combining elements of education and entertainment.

The “Bible Lands” project is overseen by the Eden Committee, including ucc President Max Torkelsen, ucc Health Education Director Fred Harding, Discover Bible School Director Kurt Johnson, and WWC Technology Department Chair Linda Nelson. Rudy Scott, 2002 mathematics graduate, is the lead programmer.

This project is just one of several opportunities technology students have had to put their classroom skills to work with actual clients. Students have also created newsletters, designed brochures, created Web page wallpaper, and worked on photo art for the 2002-03 WWC calendar.

 

Other Recent Student Accomplishments

A new Communications Department video created by senior communications students, Adam Lombard and Dan Lounsbury, was one of four nominations in the student category of the regional Emmy Awards, hosted in June by the Seattle-Northwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Michael Vercio, senior mechanical engineering student and president of the 2002 senior class, presented his senior project design at a design contest sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and won first place.

A new Web site for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers club on campus, created by Nic Ivy, senior engineering student, was judged against other IEEE Websites in the nation and received third place. First- and second-place awards went to the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University.

Judith Brooks, master of social work (MSW) student, received the Outstanding Social Work Student Award from the Washington State chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. Brooks was a student representative for the chapter board and president of the college’s MSW Club during the 2000-01 school year. The club organized a food drive to benefit local food banks and worked to introduce multicultural activities on campus and in the community. W

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