Michael Zyda’s work in modern gaming includes contributions to the networking of games, contributions to moving the Department of Defense to the utilization of games, the development of the game, America’s Army, that created the serious games field, and the creation of the top educational program in game design and development.
In his work on networked virtual environments, Prof. Zyda built the first virtual environment with fully articulated and instrumented humans that played across the Internet (1994). In addition, he built the first networked virtual environment that played across the multicast backbone of the Internet (1994). After 12 years of dedicated work on protocols and architectures for networked virtual environments, he co-authored a text for ACM SIGGRAPH press entitled "Networked Virtual Environments - Design and Implementation” (1999). That text and the research preceding is referenced by almost all network infrastructure builders of online games today. It is the seminal work on how to architect real-time online games with distributed game state.
In March 2017, Zyda was awarded the IEEE Virtual Reality Technical Achievement Award for fundamental work in virtual reality networking, body tracking & institutionalizing the application of virtual reality.
In May 2017, Zyda was appointed a member of the National Academy of Inventors in recognition of advanced technological development and innovation as issued by the United States Patent & Trademark Office.
In November 2018, he was promoted to IEEE Fellow with the citation “for contributions to game design and networking”.
This work has guided the network infrastructure builders of many of the largest online games running today. That work has additionally guided the development of the networking of large-scale defense simulations.
In 1996-1997, Professor Zyda chaired the National Research Council Computer Science and Telecommunications Board Committee that put out the report “Modeling and Simulation – Linking Entertainment and Defense” - that report was instrumental in moving the Department of Defense to the use of games for modern modeling, simulation and training, impacting the entire DoD enterprise.
Before this study came out, the US Department of Defense was building simulation systems for training that cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars. With this study, the Department realized it could use game engines and game development for its future simulation systems. This was a very large change for the Department and saved much in the way of simulation development costs.
Professor Zyda served as the principal investigator and development director of the America’s Army PC game funded by the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs. From 1999 - 2004, he took America's Army from conception to three million plus registered players and hence, transformed Army recruiting. The America’s Army game’s success created the serious games field.
The development and successful operation of the America’s Army game energized everyone with a serious topic to think about how to develop it into game form. This success created the serious games field, which continues to grow ever more important today, especially in the games for learning domain. America’s Army is often cited as the originating idea for the proposed gamification.
Professor Zyda co-holds two patents on motion tracking with a 9-axis sensor that have been licensed for use in the Nintendo Wii U. Professor Zyda co-holds an additional two patents fundamental to sensor-based, physical fitness games. Professor Zyda has multiple additional patents pending in the games space.
The fundamental patents on 9-axis motion tracking have created a huge demand for small, low-cost orientation sensors inside of handheld game machines and smart phones.
The USC Games Advanced Games Program founded by Professor Zyda has professionalized the way game developers are educated for success in the game industry. That program has become the guide to other universities desiring such programs.
In March 2019, the joint USC Games Advanced Games Program he created was recognized as the “Top School for Video Game Design for the Ninth Time in Ten Years” by the Princeton Review. His alumni have created games played by over 5B players.