SALT LAKE CITY – A video game developed by graduate students from the University ofUtah’s Entertainment Arts and Engineering program will be published Friday and previewed Thursday at an open house, 4-7 p.m., in thefilm and media arts building on the U campus. The event is free and open to thepublic.

Thegame, “Last March of the Dodos,” takes the 1991 hit video game, “Lemmings,” andturns it on its head. Instead of leading a group of lemmings through obstaclesto freedom, players of “Last March of the Dodos,” with the aid of a friendlyland-shark, must rid the world of the dodos by placing obstacles in their path.

“TheEAE program does more than just teach students about games,” said RogerAltizer, director of game design and production. “Students in this program makequality games that companies are willing to publish. ‘Last March of the Dodos’follows a tradition of great Xbox and PC games developed at the U, and weexpect it will be a delight to audiences around the world.”

ThePC game will be available for free download this Friday through Desura.com, adigital software distributing company. It was developed by a team of ninemaster’s students who graduated from the U’s EAE program in May. The teamincluded producers, designers, artists, animators and programmers. Sincegraduation, Jesse Ferraro, producer and team lead, has continued working topublish the game.

“Iwas surprised to learn how much work goes into bringing a game to production,”he said. “I now understand why companies that develop and publish games oftenspend just as much time and effort, if not more, on marketing and promotionthan on the development of the game.”

Visitorsto the open house on Thursday will have the opportunity to preview and play”Last March of the Dodos” and talk with Ferraro. The open house will alsofeature more than a dozen new games, including several medical research gamescreated by EAE students.