UN students ready to take on Games Jam challenge

Five students from the University of Northampton are gearing up for a gruelling video games-building contest.

Student teams from around the globe will converge on Cambridge later this month for the prestigious Brains Eden Gaming Festival, which will see them battle it out in a Games Jam – a 48-hour competition to build a video game from scratch.

Computer Games Development undergraduates at the University, Gabriel Rosu, Henrique Galati and Rob Paton have teamed up with Game Art students Holly Hilson and David Bush for the event, which takes place at Anglia Ruskin University between 26 and 29 June.

The Games Jam will see the teams tasked with making an original game within 48 hours – with the theme only revealed to competitors at the event.

Shane Mitchell, Senior Lecturer in Games Art at the University, said: “It may seem quite a daunting task, to be given a theme and then expected to build a game around it within two days, but our students will be incredibly well prepared for it.

“A unique selling point of our games courses is that we ensure the students work together in groups, which mirrors the way the games industry works, and so they learn to work as a team – which is invaluable to be successful in the Games Jam.

“People from the games industry have also told us the best way to understand how to make a game, is to actually make a game. This is something all of our games students do, from week one of their course. In fact, over a three-year degree, each student will have worked on three games.

“So the Games Jam is really a culmination of everything our students have been putting into practice.”

The Festival also provides the students with an opportunity to enhance their career prospects, as representatives from some of the biggest games companies in the world will be there, including Sony, Frontier, Unity and Jagex.

Shane added: “The students will be able to attend workshops, get career advice and generally showcase their talents to industry professionals.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity – the competition is sponsored by big games companies and in the past they have offered winners either internships or jobs.”

More details about Brains Eden Gaming Festival, visit the website.