DeVry students form new game studio

Three students of DeVry’s distance learning Game and Simulation Programming course have founded a new studio, Faramix – despite living on opposite sides of the USA.

Michael Dehen (23), Nathan Follmer (21) and Eric Totten (27) live in Los Angeles, Pennsylvania and New Jersey respectively, but founded Faramix in mid-2007, and have already released their first title, CellZenith. The studio is being ‘mentored’ by yet-to-be-officially-launched Loose Cannon Studios, whose president Ricci Rukavina was a former VP of Walt Disney.

"CellZenith represents guerilla game-making at its best," said Rukavina. "It’s proof positive of how a very small agile team of passionate gamemakers can achieve something extraordinary against the odds in today’s multi-million dollar development climate."

Ellen Crimi, a professor at DeVry University’s Game and Simulation Programming program, added: "What these students have illustrated with their accomplishments is the immense empowerment afforded by distant learning opportunities in higher education. Three students, separated by thousands of miles, can collaborate not only on class projects, but can foster the synergies needed to create a successful business before they even graduate."