Industry needs to welcome new products, says Yoseloff
The University of Nevada’s new Gaming Innovation course, launched in the spring at the Las Vegas campus, has already spawned 12 new student-made patented games, UNLV Professor Mark Yoseloff recently told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The course, originally funded with $250,000 from the Yoseloff Family Charitable Foundation, is now the Gaming Innovation Center, thanks to a $500,000 grant from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development’s Knowledge Fund.
Yoseloff, former CEO of SHFL Entertainment Inc., says major companies “are now closed to new inventors. If someone has a good idea, they have nowhere to take it.”
That could change. One student-designed video wagering game, Dragon Domino, is now in negotiations to be sold. “I want to produce a small army of creators,” Yoseloff said
Student Hien Nguyen, who partnered with Yoseloff to create the Chinese Domino Video Wagering Game, won the $3,500 first prize in her class. “I hadn’t imagined I would win a prize,” said 20-year-old Nguyen, who isn’t old enough to gamble in a casino.
Other notable products include 888 Baccarat, created by hotel college student He Lin, and Flip Card Blackjack, from student Aron Kock.
