

“And I just kind of rolled with that,” she says.

“I'm not really a great artist, but I'm really good at the computer kind of 3-D animation.”ĭurbala soon found that computer animation came easily to her. “I took a big risk and decided to do animation when I hadn't done any kind of animation beforehand.” she recalls. She was ready to venture beyond Iowa.īut when she got to Columbia, she felt the allure of Computer Animation, which played to her interests and strengths in the more technical aspects of the creative process. Introduced to Columbia College Chicago via high school classmates, Durbala became intrigued with the school’s film program and, perhaps even more so, its location.

Her high school in Iowa offered an innovative program that allowed her to concentrate in video and design and participate in off-campus internships making videos. And for Durbala, it’s the culmination of years of hard work that started long before she came to work at American Pinball.ĭurbala’s love of video-making and design surfaced early. Galactic Tank Force is sure to be a hit with the collectors and bar and arcade patrons who remain devoted to pinball games in the era of PlayStations. When folded down (see photo), it looks like a space-age tank that Scooby Doo and his mystery team might drive. The new game, Galactic Tank Force, features video clips and animations Durbala developed. “And you're trying to communicate a story with the sounds and the animations and the text and the voiceovers and all of that.” It's a very physical game and there's toys and ramps and everything, and you're telling a story with what's happening with these toys, what's happening with this little ball,” she says.

“Pinball is not really like anything else. Yet this week, the company she works for - American Pinball- releases an innovative game Durbala spent more than a year helping to create.Īnd now when it comes to pinball, she’s in. When Computer Animation Alum Jessica Durbala ’21 first considered coming to Columbia College Chicago, a career producing pinball games was not on her radar.
