IT students’ self-created computer games judged and winners revealed

Final year IT students at Birkenhead Sixth Form College have been showcasing their skills in Game Development, with judges choosing the best three games and the creators earning themselves prizes.

Game Development plays a key part in the IT course, and students spend time researching the field before producing a treatment, or pitch, for their own games. They then put the treatment into practice, with many designing not only the playable features of computer games but the artwork as well.

With these factors in mind, judges from College staff outside of the IT department played and rated the games, selecting the best three based on playability, style, content and clarity of delivery.

Second year Karen Taylor’s game, ‘Finding’, came out top of the judges’ scorecards, earning them a £20 Amazon gift card. A platform game akin to all-time classics ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ and ‘Super Mario Bros’, ‘Finding’ combined clear instructions, accessible gameplay and graphics, but most importantly, the frustration-cum-addictiveness which is the hallmark of such games’ success in the market.

Karen is looking forward to continuing IT study on a Games Art BA degree course at Bolton University in September, and has a view to a career in the field, with excellent results predicted for A Levels and BTECs come Results Day in August.

In second place was the visually excellent ‘Percy the Cat’ by Sean Lee. With all original artwork, Sean’s game saw his feline creation jump and scratch his way through the forest to find his way home in a simple and highly enjoyable format.

Alex Gois’s ‘Seven’ came third: a fast-paced car racer game requiring good hand-eye coordination which left the user hooked after crashing into obstacles and having to start over.

IT teacher Paul Moore said: “The development of the games is a whole unit of study on the course, but that comes at the end of meticulous planning, research and designing. Creating the games is always popular with the students and this has seen particularly strong productions off the back of the students’ effort and dedication.”

Paul continued: “The winners of the three prizes, along with many others, stood out as they chose to take a simple format and produce it well. Whilst it’s tempting to ‘run before you can walk’ with complexities and technicalities, these games, based within platform and scrolling genres, took popular and proven concepts but adapted them accordingly for their own characters to come through and executed them extremely well.”