Curtis Maughan, director of the World Languages and Digital Humanities Studio, visited the University of Manouba, Tunisia, this summer to serve on the jury for final game development projects of graduating seniors at the Higher Institute of Multimedia Arts.

The student video game projects included Brainless, a multiplayer online adventure game by Rahim Werghemi, and Heavenly Fury, a 3D stealth game by Dhiaeddine Mokaddem and Farah Mimouni, who were awarded First Prize for the annual ISAMM Innovation 2.0 contest. Maughan joined jury members Mohamed Naceur Henidi (architecture) and Mohamed Karim Azizi (game development), who founded the Game Development program at the University of Manouba. 

This visit marks the third time Maughan has worked with the University of Manouba game development students on their final projects: "It is inspiring to see how ISAMM's programs in Game Development and 3D Animation have grown in the past few years. Professors Karim Azizi (game development) and Hosni Ajlani (3D animation) have successfully integrated local Tunisian industry into their university programs, which is very exciting for ISAMM students." 

The onsite collaboration with the University of Manouba continues when Maughan is joined by David Fredrick (classics, World Languages, Literatures and Cultures Department) and graduate student researchers Rachel Murray (comparative literatures and cultural studies) and Mitchell Simpson (English).

The team will be visiting several historic sites near Tunis to take 360 photographs for an educational video game to be developed at the U of A in collaboration with the University of Manouba.