Eugene Jarvis Named First Game Designer-in-Residence by CTI

One of the trailblazers of the video game industry has joined the faculty of DePaul University’s burgeoning computer game development program.

Eugene Jarvis, creator of some of the industry’s most popular games, was recently named Game Designer-in-Residence by DePaul’s School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems (CTI).

“Having one of the pioneers of the video game industry at DePaul will provide our game development students with the invaluable insight of someone who has had unrivaled success designing games for a living over the past quarter-century,” said David Miller, dean of DePaul CTI. “We are extremely honored that he has chosen to share his knowledge with DePaul students and faculty.”

Jarvis helped develop some of the most beloved games in history during the industry’s “golden age” of the early 1980s. After working for Williams Electronic Games developing microprocessors for pinball machines in 1980, Jarvis led the team that created Defender, the revolutionary arcade hit. Defender created the scrolling space-shooter genre and beat out Pac-Man as the top-grossing game of 1981, earning over 1 billion quarters and selling more than 7 million games for the Atari 2600 console.

In 1981, Jarvis co-founded independent game developer Vid Kidz. There, he and partner Larry DeMar created Stargate, Robotron: 2084 and Blaster. When the arcade industry bubble burst in the mid-1980s, Jarvis left Vid Kidz to obtain his MBA from Stanford University. He returned to game development a few years later, striking industry gold again with the arcade games Narc and Smash TV. In the 1990s, he helped introduce 3-D texture mapping hardware to the industry through the popular Cruis’n series of driving games.

In recent years, Jarvis launched his own studio, Raw Thrills, Inc., which has brought to market several coin-operated, industry-leading games, including The Fast and the Furious, Super Bikes, Target: Terror and Big Buck Hunter Pro.

“When DePaul asked me to be the first Game Designer-in-Residence, I jumped at it with both blasters set,” said Jarvis. “DePaul CTI’s reputation for game development education is well known, but who could have predicted back in the days of Pong and Galaga that someday students would go to college and study this? I love the idea of brainstorming the future of games with the creative and dynamic students and faculty at DePaul. Let the games begin!”

DePaul CTI is one of the most innovative and wide-ranging information technology and digital cinema schools in the country. The undergraduate programs enroll more than 1,050 students and offer 14 different degrees. More than 1,950 students are enrolled in its 18 graduate programs. CTI also features a doctoral degree program in computer science. For more information, visit www.cti.depaul.edu.