When Jeremy Stieglitz was an undergraduate student at UF, he didn’t spend his weekends partying. He was sitting in his apartment coding for video games.
Five years later, Stieglitz, 26, is the co-founder and development director of Trendy Entertainment, a Gainesville-based video game studio that is currently developing its first game to be sold for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. “Dungeon Defenders” is an action game in which the player must protect his or her tower from invading creatures. Stieglitz described the game as “Lord of the Rings meets Saturday morning cartoons.”
“Dungeon Defenders” will be available for digital download from the Xbox Live Marketplace and Playstation Network Store in July for less than $20, Stieglitz said.
“We’re producing value-oriented games for digital download,” he said.
Along with “Dungeon Defenders,” Trendy Entertainment is also working on a new technology called VisionPlay, which would allow any consumer webcam and PC to render full motion analysis for video games.
Stieglitz is one of six other UF graduates among the 17 employees who make up Trendy Entertainment. He co-founded the company in January with Agapitus Lye, a 2006 UF graduate who is a CEO for the company.
As the CEO for Trendy Entertainment, Lye handles the business side of the studio, such as finding investors for their projects.
Lye said that one of the goals of Trendy Entertainment is creative independence.
“We want complete creative control,” Lye said.
