Game on: U of S students collaborate on video development and marketing project

Kian Marzilli.(left) Jasmine Pawliw (right) Standing in front of the marketing poster for their game OSHA Not Included. (Carla Shynkaruk/CTV News)

What started as a classroom assignment has evolved into a hands-on, career-building experience for University of Saskatchewan students.

They aren’t just playing games -- they’re levelling up their careers and bridging the gap between technology and business.

Roughly 80 students combined from the computer science department and the Edwards School of Business spent the semester designing, developing, and marketing original video games in a first-of-its-kind partnership.

“This is the culmination of an interdisciplinary collaboration between my class, Strategic Video Game Marketing, and the class, Video Game Design,” instructor Ben Dunning, told CTV News.

“It’s the first time Computer Science and Edwards have collaborated this way.”

Four teams were formed, each tasked with creating a unique game that blended technical development with real-world marketing strategy.

But the project extended far beyond coding and design.

“We didn’t really have a complete plan about how the collaboration would work. We let it evolve organically. For example, when the marketing students had presentations, my students were able to learn directly from that experience,” computer science instructor Jason Bowey said.

For many third- and fourth-year students, the project offered valuable insight into what working in the gaming industry might actually look like.

“It’s been really fun to connect with them and understand what they’d want from a marketing perspective,” said fourth-year business student Kian Marzilli. “That’s been a blast.”

For some like Jasmine Pawliw, the experience marks a pivotal moment before graduation.

“We learned what it means to work on a team. Working with marketing students was extremely valuable — seeing how marketing applies to a real product,” Pawliw said.

The students’ projects were given a final evaluation at a showcase event and were graded in real time.

A winning team was selected based on a popular vote.

The impact of these projects may extend well beyond the classroom as some of the student-created games could be released on public platforms as early as the end of this month.

For these students, it’s definitely not game over — it’s just the beginning.