The Champlain College Map Pack provides America's Army players with two new missions created by students at Champlain under a collaborative partnership with the U.S. Army. Since its first release in July 2002, America's Army has consistently remained one of the top-ten action games played online, gathering a following of more than 9.4 million registered users within the United States and in over 60 different countries. These players have invested 234 million hours in the game exploring Soldiering from Basic Training to operations in the Global War on Terrorism.

"We are excited and proud to share the student's accomplishments in the Champlain College Map Pack download," said Ann DeMarle, Director of the Emergent Media Center at Champlain College. "The America's Army development team continues to be an outstanding resource for the students' education and skill development. We are thankful for such a wonderful partnership."

In collaboration with the America's Army development team, Champlain students and faculty created two missions - District and Canyon - that highlight the training, technology, and values that make the U.S. Army the world's premier land force. The students are part of the Game Art & Animation, Game Programming, and Game Design bachelor degree programs. Two teams of students, each with their own student producer, worked collaboratively and competitively. Every two weeks the groups hosted a critique of their projects and received input from EMC Director Ann DeMarle, Project Director Ray McCarthy-Bergeron, and Operations Manager Sarah Jerger. The District student team consisted of Max Nichols, Dan Peavey, Halley Greaves, Emily Benton, Chris Matuszek, Jeremy Burau, and the Canyon team was Joel Pelletier, Trevor McEwen, Elken Richmond, Wesley Knee, Michael Ackerman, and Sean Thurler. Together the teams put in more than 2,500 hours of development on the missions.

The Champlain team created the Map Pack using the America's Army Mission Editor which was released to the public in December 2006 as part of America's Army: Special Forces (Coalition). Using the Mission Editor, players can create new levels or modify existing levels using any of the game's existing art, sound, particle effects and gameplay assets, and then showcase their mission for play by America's Army's global community at the America's Army Mission Depot
(www.aamissiondepot.com).

"The Champlain students really impressed the America's Army team with their creativity, teamwork and abilities," said Michael Bode, America's Army executive producer. "The District and Canyon maps are among the best that we've seen developed using our America's Army Mission Editor, and we look forward to seeing future work of these talented students."

America's Army: Special Forces (Overmatch) (Champlain College Map Pack) contains the following missions.

• District is an atmospheric, night-time scenario that takes place in a small urban area based on an eastern European city. Teams start in opposite corners of the level – one in a park, the other in a warehouse, and each one must capture two objectives located in buildings near the center to achieve success.
• Canyon takes place in a Middle Eastern mountain village where a local warlord has recently acquired a cache of heavy weapons. Orders are to secure these weapons from the village and engage enemy combatants as necessary.

The America's Army: Special Forces (Overmatch) Champlain College Map Pack is available for download at the America's Army game website.