Author: Duke

Course Related

Huddersfield Students Claim Top Spots in 3rd Round of Search for a Star and Rising Star Competitions

Duke

The results of the 3rd round of the Grads in Games “Search for a Star” and “Rising Star” European competitions have been announced, with Huddersfield students once again taking many of the highest places.

3D Character Art Challenge

Students are asked to create an original game-ready character model for use in UE4. All stylistic, narrative, thematic and aesthetic considerations are at the artist’s discretion.

https://itch.io/jam/3d-character-art-challenge-2019

Students from 1st, 2nd and final year were eligible to enter the categories, going up against thousands of entries in stage 1. Filtering only the best, stages 2 and 3 are now complete, with the final interview stage still to go.

“Search for a Star” is aimed at final year students and “Rising Star” is aimed at 1st and 2nd year students.

In partnership with Epic Games and a host of other games companies, this is a fantastic opportunity for students to show their skills in a challenging industry and be noticed for future employment prospects.

Results of the 3rd round of “3D Character Art Challenge” for “Search for a Star”:

3rdJack Walkerhttps://jackwalker.itch.io/blood-knight
4thEllie Brownhttps://ellierpbrown.itch.io/searchforastar
10thChloe Mccanhttps://skulosaurus.itch.io/dinosaur-showdown-sfas
12thJames Phirihttps://velvetfury.itch.io/so-character-art
15thMatthew Throuphttps://matthewthroup.itch.io/xu-the-tainted
17th Callum McConnellhttps://callumftw.itch.io/maroon

Results of the 3rd round of “3D Character Art Challenge” for “Rising Star”:

1stMellissa Hamerhttps://meireille.itch.io/akazugaikotsu-rising-star-2019
2ndOliver Fayershttps://oli-f.itch.io/the-sea-beast-naga-rising-star
4thJason Morleyhttps://jrmorley.itch.io/rodrick-royal-guard
8thBen Smithhttps://ben-smith99.itch.io/heist-suspect
12thNav Bhogalhttps://nav-bhogal.itch.io/yami

3D Environment Art Challenge

Students are asked to create and compose an original game environment scene for UE4, featuring a set of four key assets. All stylistic, narrative, thematic and aesthetic considerations are at the artist’s discretion.

https://itch.io/jam/3d-environment-art-challenge-2019

Results of the 3rd round of “3D Environment Art Challenge” for “Search for a Star”:

1stSam Sharphttps://fightingsharpie.itch.io/city-bowels-cyberpunk-environment
2ndRuben Chathahttps://rubenchatha.itch.io/mineshaft
5th Dan Joneshttps://dan-jones.itch.io/realistic-dentist-office

Results of the 3rd round of “3D Environment Art Challenge” for “Rising Star”:

1stReece Parrinderhttps://reeceparrinder.itch.io/sci-fi-bar
2ndChris Rhodeshttps://chris186.itch.io/elder-tree-environment
5thBradley Cullen https://bradley-cullen.itch.io/spacecorp
8thAdam Faultyhttps://adamfautley.itch.io/sammies-bar

Games VFX Challenge

Students are asked to create an original game-ready effects sequence for use in UE4. All stylistic, narrative, thematic and aesthetic considerations are at the artist’s discretion.

https://itch.io/jam/games-vfx-challenge-2019

Results of the 3rd round of “Games VFX Challenge” for “Search for a Star”:

1stZack Cundallhttps://cundall77.itch.io/cursed-tower
2ndEliot Stevenshttps://eliotstevens.itch.io/dubstep-laser-gun
Course Related

Flux8 helps to raise $3.3 million for charity

Duke

Flux8, a game developed by the University of Huddersfield internal game studio, Canalside Studios, was part of the Yogscast Jingle Jam 2018, which ran from December 1st 2018 to December 31st. Canalside Studios employ 8 placement students from across the Computer Games Design and Computer Science with Games Programming courses each year to develop real shipped titles. The whole team was very excited to be a part of this huge endeavour for charity.

The Humble Bundle special, including 78 items, sold 88,139 times to raise a total of $3,307,929.36.

All proceeds went towards benefiting multiple charities, including Call of Duty Endowment, Cancer Research UK, International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, Mental Health Foundation, Save the Children, Special Effect, Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal, and Whale and Dolphin Conservation, as well as an option to choose any charity of the buyers choice from a list of hundreds of thousands of charities.

The game is described as “a sentient magnet, enslaved in a factory, you have two options: work or be terminated! However, not all magnets are born to work. Some dream of freedom and choose to rebel. There’s a whole wide world waiting just outside those factory doors… you must remain positive!”

If you missed the Jingle Jam, you can buy Flux8 on steam right now for £4.99

Course Related

Philip Oliver from Rebellion Games Guest Lecture

Duke

the-oliver-twinsPhilip Oliver of The Oliver Twins visited on the 5th of December to give a guest lecture to our Computer Games Design and Computer Science with Games Programming students, although everyone was invited. The talk, titled “Lessons from 4 Decades of Game Development” attracted over 100 of our students and staff and covered every aspect of game development, from the earliest days of just the two of them building games through multi-million-pound projects and their current role at Rebellion.

Introduced by the Dean of Computing and Engineering, Professor Stephen Donnelly, Philip gave an informative, interesting, engaging and humorous narrative of his history in the game development world, with plenty of tips for our aspiring game developers.

As an added bonus, alumni Simon Robertson visited too to answer questions from a graduate perspective.

It was a great talk, listening to interesting tales of the early days, through difficult times with publishers and the changing landscape of the games industry. The lecture ended with some insightful perspectives on the future and a QA session. Thank you to Philip and Simon for making the journey, and the HUCS team (especially Rob Farrar) for leading the organisation of this event.

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Game Jam 2018 1.1

Duke

We’ve taken a new approach this year (18/19) with our second year team project module, having 1 week long game jams 3 times over the course of the academic year instead of the usual 24 weeks. This has freed up time for other modules during the normal academic year and compressed the team project module into those 3 jams. The first game jam took place in the first guidance week, and it was a roaring success!

The teams started at 9:15am on the Monday and had to present their final games on the Friday afternoon. The theme was “Cooperation”.

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Lots of energy at the beginning of the week!

The teams were built from our BA Computer Games Design and BSc Computer Science with Games Programming students, with 4 designers/artists and 2 programmers in each of the 8 teams.

Monday was mostly about concept building of ideas and testing some early prototypes. Tuesday saw lots of ground work, especially from the programmers, trying to lay the foundations. Wednesday and Thursday saw huge leaps forward in the development of the games from both programmers and designers and with a Friday morning polish all the teams were ready to present.

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Everyone still looked remarkably refreshed even by Friday for the presentations!

See some screenshots below of the work, but know that I was blown away by what the students achieved in the short space of time, it was remarkable how well they came together to produce some pretty awesome mini-games!

Team 1 – Imagine tennis with a hot potato!
Team 2 – work together on this collaborative puzzle game
Team 2 – work together on this collaborative puzzle game
Team 3 – work together to climb ahead of the red mist!
Team 3 – work together to climb ahead of the red mist!
Team 3 – work together to climb ahead of the red mist!
Team 4 – a game of ice and fire
Team 5 – multi level collaborative puzzler – how it worked…
Team 5 – multi level collaborative puzzler – how it looked…
Team 6 – jousting!!
Team 8 – hotel cleaning nightmare
Team 8 – nobody likes cleaning dishes
Team 8 – hotel cleaning nightmare

Course Related

End of Year Showcase 2018

Duke

The annual End of Year Showcase event took place today, with students from all years of the course, including placement year, taking part and showcasing their work. Friends, family, peers, academics and industry all got to see the best work from our Computer Games Design and Computer Games Programming (now Computer Science with Games Programming)  students. Thank you to all the students who volunteered to help with the setup in the morning and especially our technical staff and estates staff who had a challenging job in the time available.

The Winners

Setup seemed to take all morning… 

Staff, students, friends, family and industry all got to see the work from this year

Finally, it was awards time

Outstanding Achievement in the first year:

Computer Science with Games Programming: Luke Dicken-Jones
Computer Games Design: Oliver Fayers

Outstanding Achievement in the second year:

Computer Science with Games Programming: Callum Armitage
Computer Games Design: Joe Taylor

Outstanding Achievement in the first year:

Computer Science with Games Programming: Luke Dicken-Jones
Computer Games Design: Oliver Fayers

Best Team Project Game: Doom Buggies

Best Technology in a Game: Martin Kruger

Best Art in a Game: Alexander Brown

Best Design in a Game: Harry Kay

Best Animation/VFX in a Game: Jacob Beckley

Best Kial Oliver-Gibson Award: Kial Oliver-Gibson

We’re all looking forward to next year and seeing what the students produce… we’ve already started planning the event, so make you save the date… Thursday, May 2nd!