Matt Rivers of Citrus TV with a story on Grafighters, the Syracuse Student Sandbox, and what it is like to be a college student starting a business.
Student Start Ups from Matt Rivers on Vimeo.
After 32 hours with no sleep, 8 cups of coffee, 14 power point versions, and a last minute demo completion, Grafight had reached Demo Day. This wonderful event, hosted by the Tech Garden, marked the end of a 12 week journey made by four teams.
Brand-Yourself.com- a one stop online presence makeover for job applicants.
Congruser- a universal service for celebrities to have one account name across social media sites, including sub-user-names for interns.
OpenQuad- a five pronged attack at creating a site for college students to get the most out of their college experience.
Grafight- an online game that allows users to upload hand drawn characters and watch them battle it out.
Grafight was up against some stiff competition but took home a $1,000 check for the best presentation voted by the audience. It was a great feeling and overall a great experience for everyone involved in the program.
Although this was the end of the official program, now is when the real work begins. After speaking interest at Demo Day, Grafight is currently ramping up development for our February 2010 release. We plan to stay hard at work in the TechGarden while hopefully making it to some classes this semester. We would also like to thank the TechGarden, their entire staff, all of our advisers and especially our coach John Liddy for making all of this happen. Thank you to our readers and followers for showing interest at such and early stage. If you haven’t already, make sure you sign up for the Alpha testing on the homepage. We cant wait to show you more of what we have been working on.
These are our work-spaces as of a few months ago. Nice eh? They are decorated with a combination of original drawings and design inspiration from around the internet. Eric works on a Mac and I work on a PC trying to prove that the two operating systems can live in peace. Every inch of the desk area itself is covered in paper to allow for maximum doodle space. This massive sheet of paper has been put to great use from sketches to appointment reminders and even book keeping. I recommend to anyone who has a desk to do this immediately. Maybe this week I will take a picture of our current desk situation in order to display current state of madness.
Today, the IGF has officially started accepting submissions for the 2010 festival. Personally I know I enjoy seeing the IGF finalists every year because it showcases some of the most innovative games around. The games highlighted at the IGF usually offer a much higher replay value than many of the blockbuster games put out throughout the year. If you are in the indie game scene you don’t want to miss this. The deadline is November 1st.
Keep a look out for Grafight this winter.
For those of you who don’t know us, we are Grafight. Two college students named Eric and Dave creating the coolest flash game to date. The concept is simple. Allow people to upload images of their sketches and doodles and turn those sketches into 2D fighters. Bored in Biology class? Challenge your friend across the classroom with your dragon warrior vs. his caricature of the teacher. Grafight will then analyze your drawing as you watch the battle unfold like a movie. You can create many fighters, join gangs, and challenge your friends via IM, Facebook, and mobile phone.
We have been at it for about two months now, and would like to say welcome to our official blog. We have just begun development on what looks like a few month (at least) journey. This blog will have all the updates, ideas, videos, demos, problems, and ramblings that come from working on a off the wall start-up game. Bookmark us, tell your friends, and get ready for something different. We are just getting started with this blog so don’t worry if things look shaky at first, they will be smoothed out in no time.
We are currently in an amazing office that we don’t quite deserve located at the Syracuse Technology Garden. We are happily the test subjects for a new incubator program between Syracuse University and the Tech Garden, and we are glad to report so far so good. Below is an early concept video we made in the spring for our application process mainly to get our idea across in a form that wasn’t words. (we have come a long way since then) If you have any questions, suggestions, or want to know more about what we are doing please email us. We are also always looking for opinions and help so don’t be shy.
Grafight video explanation from Grafight on Vimeo.
Early stage Grafight promotional video we made for an application process into a start-up-incubator.