Trine hosting annual Art of Games on Nov. 18

Members of the public are invited to join Trine University faculty, staff and students in exploring, discussing and playing board and video games during the annual Art of Games event on Nov. 18.

Art of Games will take place from 4-8 p.m. in the Mark and Sarah Music/Ruoff Mortgage Esports Arena, with free pizza provided.

There is no cost to participate.

Expert panel

The event will feature a panel of gaming industry experts from 4-5 p.m., moderated by Michael Smith, assistant professor of mathematics at Trine.

Panel members attending in person will be: Excell Pepple, lead engineer for In Midnight Games and creative director and producer for Fence, a role-playing game; Kurt Roembke, a game developer, sound designer and music composer who organizes the Fort Wayne Game Developers Community Group; Kyle Sutherland, founder of Prairieville Games and president of the Southwest Michigan Game Developers Association; Nick Fariello, a board game designer and mechanical engineering student at Trine; and John Levy, a teacher at West Lafayette Jr./Sr. High School who tests games for Stonemeier Games.

Dave Beck, professor of game design at the University of Wisconsin-Stout Polytechnic and owner of Paverson Games, will participate in the session virtually,

Panelists will share their experiences with board games and video games and take questions from those in attendance.

Game on!

Following the panel, guests will be able to play a variety of student-made video and board games from Trine’s University’s game design minor and Honors Board Game Humanities Seminar, as well as some of the panelists’ games.

The Art of Games event aims to expose students and the community to board and video games, while exploring elements of the humanities that make them up, such as art, story and music.

In addition to Prof. Smith, Art of Games is organized by Joanna Claudy, assistant professor in the Department of Humanities and Communication, Patrick Ridout, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, and Jeremy Goossens, director of esports and industry innovation.

More than 100 students attended the event in 2025.