Tech influencer Jacklyn Dallas knows a thing or two about creativity and innovation. But when she got the chance in late April to visit the Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival, she said she was “blown away.” More than 34,000 people visited campus on April 26 for Imagine RIT. They got to experience a record-setting number of exhibits that highlighted student, faculty, and staff work at the cutting edge of technology, the arts, and design. “It was genuinely one of the most energizing days of the year so far for me,” Dallas said. “The students were brilliant, curious, and so many of them had personal missions driving what they were building.” ‌ Jacklyn Dallas with RIT President David Munson at Imagine RIT. Dallas launched her YouTube Channel NothingButTech when she was 13. She’s expanded her social media presence to Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and podcasts, with a total following in the hundreds of thousands. She’s racked up tens of millions of views for her interviews with luminaries such as Apple CEO Tim Cook, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, and Rivian Automotive CEO RJ Scaringe, as well as in-depth behind-the-scenes tours and product reviews. Just 23 years old, she’s already given guest lectures at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and New York University. She visited Imagine RIT as part of a partnership with the university. She shared glimpses of her day with her followers during her visit and recently published a more in-depth look at her experience.         View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by Jacklyn/NothingButTech (@nbtjacklyn) “I have the privilege of spending a lot of time in tech labs and at launch events led by incredibly smart engineers and founders—and I felt that same energy at RIT,” Dallas said. Would she come back? “In a heartbeat,” she said. Learn more about Dallas and her work at her website NothingButTech.

When RIT students create video games, they don’t just mail it in. A team of students won the Grand Prize at GameFest 2025 for developing Pelican Post. The game is about a pelican mailman delivering mail to a small town of unique characters. Along the way, players help the town regain a lost sense of community. The narrative game, which is in the cozy genre that emphasizes low-stress and non-violence, is currently in development. GameFest, held at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in April, is an annual showcase of student talent in game development. The competition brings together college students from around New York state and the Northeast to exhibit their games. Thirty games were accepted at GameFest this year. Three of the four finalists for the Grand Prize were games from RIT. “The quality of the games this year across the board, not just from RIT, was seriously impressive,” said Benjamin Snyder, visiting lecturer in RIT’s School of Interactive Games and Media (IGM). “What stood out to me the most was how intentional our teams were about the full experience, including updated websites, social media presence, and promotional materials. You could tell they had considered how people would encounter their games and how to keep that connection going. That big-picture mindset is going to serve them really well moving forward.” In addition to the Grand Prize, Pelican Post also won Excellence in Narrative Design and was a finalist for Excellence in Visual Art. Four other RIT student games were highlighted at the 2025 competition, including:Good Luck Valley — won Excellence in Visual Art and finalist for Excellence in Narrative and the Grand Prize Grim’s Coffin — won Excellence in Game Design and Grand Prize finalist Vessyl — finalist for Excellence in Game Design and Technical Excellence Echoes in the Mist — Technical Excellence finalist Grim's Coffin by Kevin-Insinna Snyder said that what makes the biggest difference for RIT students at competitions is that they tend to take opportunities and really run with them. “They don’t just treat their games as something they needed to make for a class—they treat them like they’re already in the industry,” said Snyder. “That mindset shift, from ‘this is a class project’ to ‘this is something I believe in,’ is what really raises the bar and changes the perception from ‘a game made by students’ to ‘a game made by developers who happen to be students.’” How Pelican Post delivered Pelican Post started as a game jam submission for the 2024 New Year, New Skills Game Jam. The game development event had the theme of “making connections.” ‌ Pelican Post In Pelican Post, players take on the role of Pepper, a young pelican who recently moved to Port Pleasant for a job as the town’s mailman. Through the job, players interact with and get to know the townsfolk and help them out. The creators said that small acts of kindness is pretty much in the mailman’s job description. In 2024, the team continued working on Pelican Post through RIT’s MAGIC Maker Program. The extracurricular program provides students with the funding, studio space, and mentoring support to manage their own digital media projects and prepare them for publication and investment readiness. “While the game was already visually impressive prior to the program, the majority of actual development happened during the Maker program,” said Jeremy Kotz, a third-year game design and development major from North Potomac, Md. “We worked incredibly hard to transform the game from a visual and conceptual demo into a full game demo with a complete vertical slice—a segment of the game that is polished, contains all core gameplay features, and is reflective of the final product we aim to create.” Kotz said that the team’s success at GameFest can be largely attributed to its efforts during RIT’s MAGIC Maker program. “Pelican Post stood out because we have a clear vision for the world we are creating and the experience we want players to have,” said Kotz. “Players were fully immersed in the cozy atmosphere of the game and we received an incredible amount of positive feedback.” ‌ The Pelican Post team includes Connor Petrei (top row, left to right), Rylan, Vanacore, Drew Genel, Jeremy Kotz, Ricard Halvorson, Cheryl Chang (bottom row, left to right), Joana Leong, and Jason Weinberg. The Pelican Post team currently includes development lead and game designer Kotz; visual lead Drew Genel ’25 (new media design); narrative lead Connor Petrei, a fourth-year game design and development major; composer Joana Leong, a fourth-year game design and development major; developer Ricard Halvorson, a third-year design and development major; developer Jason Weinberg ’25 (game design and development); developer Gale Ellis ’24 (game design and development); animator Cheryl Chang, a fourth-year film and animation major; and marketer Rylan Vanacore ’25 (journalism).  In the fall, several members of the team are bringing the game to their IGM Production Studio course, where they will get to continue creating content for the game. In the future, they hope to work with MAGIC to publish the game on Steam.