In 2025, the IU Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering in Indianapolis will mark its 25th anniversary. It was originally known as just the School of Informatics and later as the School of Informatics and Computing (SoIC).
The School of Informatics was originally founded in 2000, on the Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana campuses, with classes offered on both campuses, but by the end of 2004, classes were starting to be offered at the then-newly constructed Informatics and Communications Technology Complex (ICTC) building on the Indianapolis campus.
The building, and, more or less, Luddy Indianapolis, has changed a lot over its nearly 25-year history, and Mathew Powers, a long-time faculty Lecturer of Game Design, Comics, and Alien Creature classes at Luddy Indy since 2007, has seen his fair share of changes throughout the years. He sat down in an interview with me on January 17, 2024, to discuss his years with the school, as well as what got him into gaming.
- So, the Luddy School, or at least the ICTC building in Indianapolis, has existed for over 20 years, since you’ve been here for 17 of the 20 years, what are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen in your time here?
I have been here for 17 years. What the heck happened? I was supposed to be here for a one-year gig, it’s turned into nearly half my life, okay? But I love every minute of it, it’s been insane, up and down, back and forth. I started here in 2007, three years after this building [the ICTC building] was created in 2004. Before that, there was the Mary Cable* building across the street, which is now a parking lot. You know, it was a historical building, that’s where it all started. It’s funny, because before here, I had previously graduated from IU Bloomington, I was teaching for Ivy Tech in the evenings in Columbus, in the VisComm department, I was teaching at IU as an adjunct in Bloomington, in the Art department, and then I was working for Option 6*, doing eLearning, and animations and games for clients such as Lilly, Toyota, Krispy Kreme, stuff like that.
Well, then suddenly, everybody was letting me go, and I went from having three jobs in July, to not having any jobs by the end of July; and then out of nowhere, came this beautiful phone call, from the IUPUI School of Informatics, and they said, “Here’s what’s going on. The other guy’s left, would you like to do it?”, I said ,”Heck yeah.”, and I’ve been here ever since.
I need to get back to the question, when I first started, there were three Game classes – Game 1, Game 2, and Flash with Unreal 2, that’s it. And I’ve just been proud to work with Travis (Faas, another video game instructor for Luddy), and Todd (Shelton, a Web Development/Game Production instructor), and Zeb (Wood, yet another video game/3D instructor), and Albert (William, a 3D Graphics instructor) and so many others, because we’ve grown the game track to grow more classes than I can count, we have adjuncts now, we have a TT-RPG class, Game Psychology, History of Games, Game Production, all this stuff. Some big changes have been in the curriculum, we went from this tiny, little small school to the third biggest school on campus, I’ve been told. We’ve partnered with the Polis Center*, Computer Science, our official name is the IU Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indianapolis-I think they’re going to add Computer Science at some point, and we’re just gonna keep growing and growing.
But, the biggest change that I have seen, is again, the curriculum. Again, we went from these small little classes, small number of classes, and small amount of people in the classes, it used to be 10-15 people; and although we’re in this weird upset right now, the History of Games (a class that Powers also teaches) used to be 200-300 people. So, we’ve got a huge plethora of classes–3D, Film, Web, Storytelling, Game track–it’s all just grown, grown, grown, and we’ve had people come and go and everything, and I miss them, but we’ve got great new people and we just keep growing, growing, growing.
- What keeps bringing you back year after year? What’s your favorite thing about teaching here?
So, the reason I keep going back is because, look, this is a dream job. I’m teaching Video Games, I’m teaching people how to do Comics, and I’m also doing Creature–Alien Design, I’m doing all the things that I love in this world, and teaching people how to do it. I get to see people evolve, and grow, and change. Like for me, I was a schmuck in school, and I turned into hopefully–something respectable, and I get to watch all these kids not know what’s going on, and they get all these life lessons, and then they turn into these cool, solid, and responsible creative individuals. Yes, it’s a struggle, but it’s great to see people evolve. It’s also great to see people get a chance to do what they love. It’s like I say, “we’re nerd strong, and nerd proud.” We can be as creative as we want, and also, it’s not a 9 to 5 job for me.
- Why should high school graduates, or transfer students, or people going back to school in general, for technology related things, why should they choose the IU Luddy School in the M.A.S. (Media Arts and Science) program?
Well, because we are insanely committed, and we care about people’s growth, we want people to be able to find a better lot in life. I have nothing against cubicles, but people don’t need to be in cubicles, I want people to do what they want to do, and what they love. It’s a struggle–especially with being creative, but you have a chance by meeting with professors and students and create a network, and doing projects–and to walk out with a network, and a portfolio, to hopefully give them a chance, and getting a job out there that they love–making games, doing creatures, whatever. There’s no guarantee, but I wanna help people at least get a chance. They got that coming here, cause all of us care, all of us are insanely caring about this stuff, and we care to the point of helping people live out their dreams.
- What first got you into gaming? Like, what was your first video game that you truly fell in love with?
That’s a great question. Thank you, Zach. Like I was showing in class*, I remember getting (Super) Mario Bros. and Legend of Zelda. Now, mind you, I had played Atari, I played ColecoVision*, I played all those systems, but it was like–you bought the game, and you got a big box, and you got a couple of guides, but when Nintendo came out, they provided you with these little golden little booklets*, and in there were all the ways to play the game, but there was the history, the lore, there were the enemies–you know–the creatures, the weapons, the items, all this stuff, and to me, it was like having the world’s best library book, like the best reference book; and I wanted to be that guy that would design, draw, and create those. I love Mario and Legend of Zelda, but if you were to see my loft in my house, you won’t find any Mario or Luigi, but you will find all kinds of Goombas and Koopas and Bowsers and all this stuff, because I love those “enemies”, and I love the diversity of those creations. Those characters were always homogenous and kinda meh, but you really get to have wild designs with the enemies, I was already drawing creatures and animals, but I was really inspired by looking at what these guys and gals had done from Japan and America and looking at these booklets. Plus, Dragon Warrior* was amazing, all this stuff was just absolutely amazing, and I wanted to follow in the footsteps! So, I was doing Creatures, it was endorsed by Gaming, and then I made Gaming Creatures, and then, I just did Gaming and Creatures my whole darn life until I ended up here. So, there you go.
- So, in conclusion, how much longer do you see yourself working here?
(Laughs) See, I don’t know. That’s the thing, I mean, it’s 17 years! I can’t believe it’s been 17 years. I don’t know, I mean, could I see myself here forever? Yeah. I don’t know if the rest of the school would like that, but also–I don’t know, I do wanna be here. Here’s one thing I will say, I wanna be able to be here, and focus a little more on my own art, and my own gaming, so I’ll tell ya one thing I’m trying to do is find a way to still be a good, solid, effective teacher, but that’s the hard part, having a balance–I need to carve out to continue to be–hopefully–a good teacher, help everybody, carve out some more time for my kids and my family, and also carve out sometime to draw my creatures, make games, and do stuff, so as I hit this certain age right now, I’m trying to find a nice trifecta of balance time, and it’s hard, because you really get committed to people here, and you do this and that, so it’s a heck of a balance, so I’m currently looking for a balance within those things, but still I wanna do all those things the best I can, and we’ll see what happens. I don’t know; and the school’s great, because it allows me to be creative, be inspired and help people, and I need to channel more of that into my own work. So, there you go.
* = some explanations
(From question 1) From 1867 to 1980, the public elementary school no. 4, or Mary E. Cable Elementary School, occupied the site on the corner of North Blackford Street and West Michigan Street in Indianapolis. The school provided education to young African American children beginning in 1922, due to the segregation of public education. IUPUI eventually acquired the building in the 1970s and used it to house various academic programs and departments until the building was closed in 2005 and was demolished in January 2006 by IUPUI, due to asbestos contamination. The current I.T. building (which had opened a few years before the demolition of the Mary Cable Building) would then serve as the new home for many of the programs housed at the Cable Building, including the School of Music at IUPUI and the Department of Communication Studies.
(Also from q. 1) Option Six is a University-Based Alternative Route. It’s for Individuals who hold a bachelor’s or master’s degree in a non-teaching major interested in attaining initial teacher certification; meet university admission requirements and a GPA of at least 2.75.
(Also from question 1)The Polis Center–in the IU Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering at Indianapolis—works with community partners in Indiana and beyond to develop innovative place-based policies and practices for healthier and more resilient communities.
(from question 4) This interview took place shortly after Powers’ History of Games class, in which I was a student in said class.
(Also from question 4) ColecoVision is a second-generation home video-game console developed by Coleco and launched in North America in August 1982. It was released a year later in Europe by CBS Electronics as the CBS ColecoVision. The console offered a closer experience to more powerful arcade video games compared to competitors such as the Atari 2600 and Intellivision. The initial catalog of twelve games on ROM cartridge included the first home version of Nintendo’s Donkey Kong as the pack-in game. The console was discontinued in 1985, after Coleco withdrew from the gaming market.
(From q.4) The NES Golden Booklets were made since the NES had limited storytelling, so it’s purpose was to “boost awareness of the characters”. Illustrator Art Ellis (who actually worked on the booklets with his wife, Kim), said in part that the books, “It was important to maintain the characters’ profiles, especially how they react to each other and respond to challenges”, and that he worked mainly on the design.
(Last one from q. 4) For those confused, he’s likely talking about the well known Japanese RPG series Dragon Quest, which was originally called Dragon Warrior in North America until about 2005.