Playing ‘Skyscaper Games’ at Cira Centre to Celebrate Semiquincentennial and Philly Tech Week

To help celebrate America’s semiquincentennial, middle school video game designers — and the rest of Philadelphia — will see their games come to life as the world’s largest architectural video game display at Cira Centre in Schuylkill Yards. On May 8, as part of Philly Tech Week festivities, Drexel University’s Entrepreneurial Game Studio transform the creations of nine young designers into games that are fully playable on the LED array of Brandywine Realty Trust’s 29-story Cira Centre office building. Gameplay begins at approximately 8 p.m. at Drexel Square at 30th and Market Streets.

Frank Lee, PhD, founding director of the Entrepreneurial Game Studio and Westphal College of Media Arts & Design professor, and Erin Truesdell, PhD, a Drexel alumna and New Jersey Institute of Technology professor, are collaborating with Technical.ly, Brandywine Realty Trust, The Tetris Company and Young Futures to host the event. 

“There's something truly special about having an event like this in Philadelphia, especially as part of both Philly Tech Week and the America 250 celebration," Lee said. "Seeing young students get excited about game development and coding is exactly why we do this. I'm so grateful to Young Futures, Brandywine Realty Trust, Technical.ly, the Tetris Company and every partner who helped bring it to life.”

At the event, participants will have the opportunity to play games designed by students who participated in Lee and Truesdell’s “Skyscraper Games” project, which was part of the nonprofit Young Futures’ “Here Comes the Fun Challenge.” Supported by the software company Niantic and in partnership with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, the goal of the project was to engage students in learning computing concepts through digital game development and creative expression — using a virtual model of the Cira Centre as their game design environment.

“Leading this project alongside Dr. Lee has been a great joy, and we have a wonderful team of people that have made this possible, including student teams at both Drexel and NJIT and some really phenomenal partners in the Philadelphia community,” Truesdell said. “I'm so excited to bring ‘Skyscraper Games’ to a new generation of creators and expand our reach by making learner-designed games available in Fortnite.”

In addition to Tetris, the classic puzzle game, four student-designed games will be unveiled. Shrimp!, Maze Race, Dance Pong and Surpise Attack will make their debut on the Cira Centre on Friday night. In Shrimp!, the players play as a shrimp, avoiding hungry predators. Maze Race features two players racing through a labyrinth. Dance Pong is a classic game of ping pong with a rhythmic twist and a chance to score points with dance moves. Players chase and eliminate enemies in Surprise Attack.

This is the first opportunity Philadelphians will have to play video games on the Cira Center since Lee’s studio opened Drexel Square in exciting fashion in 2019. Lee, who co-founded Drexel’s Game Design Program, first gained notoriety with a similar project in 2013, when his team designed a version of the arcade classic “Pong” for the Cira Centre as part of Philly Tech Week 2013. A year later, Lee broke his own Guinness World Record as the creator of the “World’s Largest Architectural Videogame Display,” when his team created a game of Tetris that was played on both the north and south walls of the building, creating a 119,600-foot display.

This year’s event marks the end of Philly Tech Week 2026. There were close to 100 events celebrating technology, entrepreneurship and innovation this week, including the Builders Conference at CYTO | PHL, a modern event space in the Cira Centre. Anyone can join the outdoor, interactive party at Gather Food Hall in Drexel Square from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.