The sky’s the limit for University’s gaming students

The next generation of video game creators put their skills to the test earlier this month during University of Northampton’s gaming challenge, Winter Game Jam.

Students were given just three days to make a game from scratch that could be played using innovative controller ‘Rexy Wheels’.

Provided by Rexy Gaming, these two-disc cinematic hand wheels are purpose-built for gaming and virtual production, and offered students a unique challenge to create a game changing concept.

Five teams of Games Design students – accompanied by students from the University’s Music Production course – battled it out to claim the ‘Best Game Overall’ trophy.

Following an afternoon of game demonstrations on Thursday 18 January, individual awards were presented to each of the teams for excelling within five categories:

• Best Game Overall: Astro Dodge – A survival game where you dodge hoards of enemies with the aim of beating the clock to progress to the next level.
• Best UX: Shattered Sun – A well-refined twin-stick shooter with an impressive progression system.
• Best Use of Controller: Cyber Shot – A neon cyberpunk-style sniper shooting game with an impressive zoom function.
• Best Looking Game: 2.0 Genesis – Play as a lone guard in the Forest of Debus’s entrance to defend the city from waves of enemies.
• Most Intuitive Game: Lakefront – A top-down view fishing game that makes good use of the Rexy Wheels input methods.

Each game can be downloaded and played via: www.itch.io/jam/panam-fest/entries

Senior Lecturer in Games Design, Vikaas Mistry said: “Here at UON, we run two Game Jam events per year to give students the opportunity to experience real-world challenges they would face in the industry.

“Within the gaming industry, it’s very common for designers and developers to be given a tight time frame, so it’s vital for students to experience this and get to grips with working professionally under pressure and pushing their creativity to the max.

“This therefore gives students a great career development opportunity, gives them an edge on their CV and they can use it in their portfolios. It’s also an excellent point of discussion during job interviews when talking about working as team under strict deadlines.”

Rob Portazier, Director of Rexy Gaming, said: “It has been a fantastic opportunity to set students at University of Northampton this task to test their game design creativity to the max. I was hugely impressed with the out-of-the-box-thinking demonstrated by each of the teams.

“At Rexy Gaming, we have been so impressed by the quality of the games that we’re excited to take them out on the road to demonstrate the potential of the Rexy Wheel, as well as offer all of our customers an opportunity to play each of the games as proof of the Rexy Wheel’s potential.”

Vikaas thanked Rexy Gaming for supporting the event which he hopes to expand and would welcome approaches from potential sponsors and partners – Vikaas.Mistry@northampton.ac.uk.

Find out more about studying Games Design at University of Northampton.