With the pandemic still raging across the globe, video games have become the perfect diversion, offering players an opportunity to indulge in new worlds while connecting with friends safely online.

That’s why what the students from the University of Utah’s Entertainment Arts & Engineering video game development program are doing is crucial – creating a host of new adventures for people to delve into. They will be showcasing their newest creations during the program’s “EAE Play 2020,” a virtual event in which the students will demonstrate games under development to the public. The affair will be held on EAE’s Twitch channel Friday, Dec. 4, beginning at 1 p.m. You can join by clicking https://twitch.tv/UniversityOfUtah.

This year, the students will be demoing 25 new titles including graduate student thesis games, undergraduate capstone projects, first-semester graduate student prototypes, and medical games from The Therapeutic Games and Apps Lab (The GApp Lab), a collaboration between EAE, the Center for Medical Innovation, and the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library.

Some of the games that will be on display include:

• Abyss of Neptune – A first-person underwater survival horror game in which deep-sea divers investigate mysterious signals throughout the world.

• Souls of the Wind – A platforming puzzle game where players control the power of the wind to complete challenges.

• Juice and the Glory – A multiplayer game in which players must maneuver spinning fruit like tops in order to knock the other team into utensils of death.

• Deadly Daycare – a VR game involving a cast of chaotic creatures who try to destroy players and their daycare.

Some of The GApp Lab titles being showcased include:

• All of Us – A VR game aimed to help the public understand genetics and precision medicine.

• VR Foley Insertion Simulation – A VR simulation that helps train nursing staff with urinary catheter insertion.

Entertainment Arts & Engineering, which is under the U’s College of Engineering, launched in 2007 and has become one of the most highly regarded video game development programs in the nation. Earlier this year, EAE was ranked the No. 1 public university in games worldwide, according to the latest rankings by The Princeton Review.