Students, alumni and industry professionals packed USC’s Cinematic Arts Complex for an evening of play on May 12. Photos/Carell Augustus.
You are a robot made of memory. Across a fractured alien landscape, a flock of woolly creatures — the Cloudfens, soft and bewildered — look to you for direction. Your only tool is sound: record it, replay it and watch the broken world slowly knit itself back together.
That was Baacadia, one of the games unveiled at the 10th annual USC Games Expo on May 12, the largest university-run gaming showcase in the world, where students, alumni and industry professionals packed USC’s Cinematic Arts Complex for an evening of play. USC Games, consistently ranked among the nation’s top game design programs, is a joint initiative between the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
Guide a flock of friendly, fluffy, alien sheep in Baacadia, a 3D exploration game.
The lineup at the Advanced Games Projects Spotlight Show swung wildly between tones, genres and ambitions.
Aftertaste put players inside a sentient tongue navigating a chef’s inner organs, each level a metaphor for burnout.
Glorgo’s Microplastics Mine made you a middle-manager overseeing miners mutating in a Y2K dystopia.
Masterworks of Horror: Lovecraft’s Gambit let you battle opponents with decks built from classic horror literature.
Lucky Duckies was co-op chaos — two rubber ducks launching each other through obstacle courses to rescue ducklings.
Move, Move, Melon sent a hamster careening through snack-filled levels on a toy ice cream maker.
Stitchlings had you hacking dust bunnies and stitching enemies onto your plush-doll body.
THE UNREALTOR trapped two players inside a house tour collapsing into impossible architecture.
Sisyphus’s Worst Day Ever made you Zeus’s newest intern, engineering contraptions to keep the boulder down forever.
And B.L.U.E. dropped you into a deep-space sandbox to engineer modular spacecraft — governed by real physics — and send them into battle.
B.L.U.E project lead, Dylan Sun, who served as lead flight software engineer on the record-breaking USC Rocket Propulsion Lab team. Photo/Carrell Augustus.
That last part, the real physics, was not a flourish. Lead developer Dylan Sun spent two years as flight software engineer on USC’s rocket team before Aftershock II crossed the edge of space and set a collegiate rocketry record. The game grew directly from that experience.
“I decided we should create a video game to attract more engineering talent to the aerospace industry,” Wake said, “and to boost human space exploration.”
His 16-person team built their physics simulation from scratch after Unreal Engine’s multiplayer support buckled under their ambitions — 105,000 lines of code later. “If you want to do anything outside of conventional game design,” Wake said, “the engineering workload will instantly sky-rocket.”
Baacadia came from an equally specific place, if a quieter one. Lead Haoxuan (Rex) Ma built it from a single impulse — “I wanted to experience shepherding” — and sound became the natural lens. Ma comes from a family of musicians, and 55 contributors built out a fully diegetic soundscape to match. No combat, no death mechanic. Tension comes from curiosity alone. What Ma hopes players carry with them is hard to name: “a quiet sense of wonder and warmth. Something subtle that lingers.”
Not every project at the USC Games Expo lived on a screen. Raceway USA, created by students in USC’s themed entertainment program, transformed mini golf into a playful, immersive road trip across American landmarks.
The expo, now in its tenth year, was supported by game developer Wemade. More than 60 student games filled the complex alongside immersive installations and a late-night esports tournament. For the students, the stakes feel bigger than a grade.
“Being part of a milestone like this,” Ma said, “makes the whole process feel more meaningful — not just as a project, but as part of a larger community.”
Published on May 26th, 2026
Last updated on May 26th, 2026