Level 3 Gaming and Computing students at Fareham College have won Best Overall Game at this year’s University of Portsmouth’s Game Jam, beating university students and industry experts to take the top award.
Organised and hosted every year by the university, the competition sees teams compete over the course of a week to create a working video game taking inspiration from one of three randomly selected topics or articles sourced from Wikipedia. The themes this year were Irish boy band D-Side, children’s rights activist David L. Levy, and the Keralan village of Pallissery.
2018 saw the biggest turnout for the competition to date, with over 150 competitors taking part. They included university staff and students, alumni and industry professionals, with Fareham College students the only participants from FE.
The winning game – developed by second year students Jordan Thompson, Jack Sibley, Mantas Ruigys and Connor O`Brien – was Mic Drop, a competitive party game for up to four people in which players compete to hold on to a microphone for one minute while the other players try to shoot it out of their hand. The game was praised for its novel movement/targeting system.
Ashley Michael, Head of Department International, Enterprise and Digital Industries at Fareham College, said: “Congratulations to our students on their fantastic achievement at this year’s Game Jam. Not only have they demonstrated great skill and professionalism by competing against a pool of industry experts and university students, but to win the top award of Best Overall Game is absolutely outstanding. I could not be prouder.”
On winning the award, Jordan Thompson said: “I couldn’t believe it when our game was announced as best. Game development is my passion and events like these can offer great insight into what working to a tight deadline and with a small team is like. It also gives you the chance to meet and speak to likeminded people who you might get the opportunity to work with someday.”