WELCOME JUDGES!

Galaga Reimagined

Final Judging Instructions

Thanks so much for being part of this! You’ve been invited to help review final projects from an advanced concept art course at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), where students spent the semester reimagining the classic Galaga arcade game.

(More detailed course info can be found in our “Why Galaga?” class blog post)

I’m Dave Inscore, the instructor for this course. I’ve worked in games for a number of years, and I currently run a UI/UX studio called UX is Fine while continuing to teach concept art at MICA.

This course challenged students to rebuild Galaga’s visual identity from the ground up—ships, enemies, characters, environments, and tone—while striking a balance between originality, nostalgia, and strong execution.


Their final boards are linked below.

🙏 Feel Free to Loop In Trusted Colleagues

If you know another creative director, concept artist, or art lead whose eye you trust, feel free to forward this page. Additional votes are welcome as long as the process is followed and submissions are in by the deadline.

⚙️ What to Do:

  1. Review each student project in the links below.

  2. Choose your Top 3 projects, ranked in order (1st, 2nd, 3rd).

  3. Email your picks to dinscore@mica.edu by 6 PM EST today… Monday, May 5, 2025.

    • Judging opens at 4 PM EST today (May 5th)

    • Subject line: “Galaga Reimagined Judging – [Your Name]

🧠 Judging Criteria:

Please consider the following when making your picks:

  • Originality – Is the creative direction fresh and surprising?

  • Nostalgia – Does it thoughtfully nod to the original Galaga?

  • Creativity – Are the ideas playful, inventive, and ambitious?

  • Execution & Quality – Is the work clean, complete, and professionally presented?

🧮 Scoring System (internal use)

  • 1st Place Pick = 5 points

  • 2nd Place Pick = 3 points

  • 3rd Place Pick = 1 point

The student with the highest total score will win a mini Galaga arcade machine 🕹️

📂 Student Final Boards:

THANK YOU!

Huge thanks again for lending your time and insight to help support these emerging artists. Your feedback means a lot—these students have poured months of work into developing their own spin on a beloved classic, and having industry eyes on their efforts is a rare and valuable opportunity.

If you're curious to see more behind-the-scenes progress from the semester—including early sketches, research, and design process—you can check out our class blog here:

👉 CLASS BLOG

Thanks again for being part of this.

Dave Inscore
dinscore@mica.edu