University of Huddersfield Computer Games

A unique game borne out of one student’s dream has won the top prize from Microsoft’s international competition, the Imagine Cup.

Games Design student Ben Hinchliffe, along with his team, have won a two week placement at RARE studios, the company who created the hugely successful ‘Viva Piñata’ game for the XBox. The team used XNA programming to create ‘Drizzle’, a PC- and XBox-playable game which highlights the problem of acid rain. The objective is to catch the acid rain as it falls to the earth and convert it into water, which is then used to grow trees. As the trees multiply, the smog covering the earth disperses to reveal a green haven. Progressive levels reveal different countries which need to be purged of smog, until the completion of the game where the whole world is green. Fellow Games Design students David North and Anthony Trolley, alongside Games Programming student Karl Mitson spent five months designing and developing the game and presented it at the awards show, drawing a crowd of impressed gamers and sparking an interest from RARE.

The Imagine Cup is billed as the World’s premiere technology competition and has, for the first time this year, extended its brief to include a Games Development category. The competition challenged the creative and technical skills of students and individuals from all over the globe to create a game which is not only entertaining but promotes the creation of a sustainable environment.

Team leader Ben Hinchliffe explains: “The idea came about following a dream I had of me playing the very game we have now created. At first, I thought nothing of it – just that it would be an interesting project to pursue when I had the time. But shortly after, I saw the brief for the Imagine Cup competition and thought it was so weird that my idea matched the specifications of the competition so closely; maybe it was a premonition! We worked really hard for five months on the game and we’re really chuffed that it did so well.”

The recent competition win is the next step in the continued success of the University’s School of Computing & Engineering. Microsoft were so impressed with the team’s DreamBuildPlay entry, ‘Yo Ho Kablammo!’, last year that they will be releasing the game worldwide as part of their Arcade LIVE package, meaning players from all over the globe will be able to compete against each other in the pirate-style game. Informatics Subject Leader Damian De Luca explains:

“This is such a competitive area so it’s great as a School and as a university to have students that win both nationally and internationally. To have a group of students who are capable of succeeding at this level – not just once but year after year – proves there is something special about our students and that they really do deserve this kind of acclaim.

“We are the only university that is actually contracted to Microsoft as a publisher – we have a working studio that takes conference calls from the team in Seattle and we are actually publishing globally-played games – this really sets us apart in a big way. Students here are given a true experience of not only designing and programming games, but following them all the way through to the release date – this is a unique experience we are very glad to be able to offer our students.

(copied from http://www.hud.ac.uk/news/hudd-lines/news_stories/08_08_stories/student_game.html)

You can see the Drizzle trailer on youtube…

Congratulations!