School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at Rensselaer

🚨 Two RPI alums just hit #1 on Steam! 🚨

Huge congratulations to Anton Hand '12G and Luke Noonan ‘09, cofounders of RUST LTD and part of the team behind the VR smash “Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades.”

After nearly 10 years of development in Early Access, the game officially launched its 1.0 release on July 4—and by the end of the month, it had climbed to become the #1 highest-rated game on Steam for July with an incredible 94.75% user rating.

To put that into perspective: Steam accounts for roughly 85–90% of PC game sales worldwide. Reaching the top of Steam is the gaming equivalent of landing a #1 album on Billboard. This is an achievement which reflects years of creativity, technical excellence, and dedication.

What's next? The developers are currently working on a sequel, “Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades 2,” which is currently the second-most anticipated release on the Meta store.

Drop a congratulations for the team in the comments! 🎉

We're huge fans of students who go all in—like Vanessa Bionda '26. 🎶

While at RPI, Vanessa pursued a double major in Music and Communication, Media, and Design, making the most of every opportunity. She wrote, recorded, mixed, mastered, and produced her debut album, Metamorphosis, in the HASS Media Studio, directed and starred in its music videos, and created an entire marketing and media campaign inspired by what she learned in the classroom and through internships with Sodexo and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

This is what makes a HASS education so powerful: students aren't limited to one path. They explore their passions, build skills across disciplines, and create opportunities that reflect who they are and what they want to achieve.

We're so proud of everything Vanessa has accomplished, and we have a feeling this is only the beginning. 💛

🎧 Listen to Metamorphosis—featuring backup performances from Sr. Lecturer Ross Rice and classmates Aurora Sky Chen '26, John Kramer '29, and Cooper Filkins '26—at the link below!

🎶 Find your people. Find your sound.

Auditions for the amazing RPI Ensembles are happening August 24–29! If you love to sing or play an instrument, there’s a place for you in the RPI Orchestra, Concert Choir, and Wind Symphony—and on the stage at EMPAC.

🎻 Any major
🎺 Any instrument
🎤 Any voice
❤️ One incredible community

Sign up for an audition time at the link in our bio!

Audition | The School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Auditions for Rensselaer Ensembles generally occur during the first week of classes. Please read below for specific instructions from ensemble faculty: ORCHESTRA, CHOIR AND WIND SYMPHONYAudition dates will be available from Sun. Aug. 24 – Wed. Aug. 27, or by appointment after those dates. In o...

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Join us on LinkedIn for stories about groundbreaking research, student achievements, alumni success, faculty insights, and the ideas shaping the future of the humanities, arts, and social sciences at RPI.

Whether you're a student, alum, industry partner, or simply curious about what's next, we'd love to connect.

➡️ Follow HASS on LinkedIn at the link in the comments and be part of the conversation!

Artificial intelligence is transforming every industry—and game design and development are no exception. We were pleased to welcome students from PREFACE, RPI's summer engineering experience for rising high school juniors and seniors, to HASS for a fascinating look at “Games & AI” with Professor Ben Chang.

From how AI shapes gameplay to the bigger questions about how we build and use these technologies, students got a firsthand look at one of today's most exciting and fast-moving fields.

Looking back for a moment at one of our favorite nights of the year: the '25–'26 Creative Seminar Exhibition—a gallery full of original artwork, films, games, sculptures... pretty much anything our amazing students can dream up, shared with classmates, professors, and the entire Troy community.

And we're just one month away from doing it all again. 🎉

It feels like just yesterday our campers were meeting one another for the first time.

Over five days, they learned game design, programming, 3D art, animation, music, motion capture, and playtesting—but they also learned how to collaborate, solve problems, and bring creative ideas to life.

The week ended with our campers proudly presenting their original games to family and friends. Watching parents experience games their children created from scratch in just one week was a wonderful reminder of what curiosity, creativity, and teamwork can accomplish.

Thank you to all of our campers, families, faculty, and staff for making this year's Game Development Camp such a success. We can't wait to see where these young developers go next!

Some stories are too important to lose—even a single detail.

Through a new partnership with the New York State Museum, RPI and HASS are using advanced digital fabrication technology to help preserve some of New York's most significant historical artifacts.

The collaboration began with artifacts—including cannonballs and an iron hearth ring—recovered from a Revolutionary War-era gunboat discovered beneath the site of the World Trade Center. When Museum conservators determined that treatment of the iron artifacts would result in the loss of some original material, RPI created a high-resolution 3D replica from a pre-treatment scan, preserving the artifact's original form for future research, education, and public exhibition.

HASS Operations Manager Michael Rosado and Lecturer Adrianna Oropello led the scanning and printing process, demonstrating how emerging technologies can support the preservation and interpretation of our shared history.
The hearth ring and cannonball replicas are now on display at the New York State Museum.

Read more at linktr.ee/rpi_hass.

🎮 Day 4 of Game Development Camp is here, and our campers are bringing their games to life!

Our middle and high school students are playtesting their creations, adding motion capture animations in the HASS OptiTrak studio, and putting the finishing touches on their projects before the big finale: presenting their games to their families.

It’s incredible to see how much these amazing students have accomplished in just one week—from learning new tools to building playable experiences of their own. We can’t wait to see where their creativity and skills take them next! 🚀

Day 3 of our Game Design Camp has our middle and high school students fully immersed in the game creation process!

Working in the HASS Visualization, Animation and Simulation Technology Lab, campers are designing and building their own games using Unreal Engine 5 while learning the many disciplines that come together to create interactive experiences. This week they've explored game art, 3D modeling, and this morning—music for games with Associate Professor Rob Hamilton.