World-class team prepare to host Microsoft competition
Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:00:00 GMT
Student Ben Hinchliffe with award-
winning 'Drizzle'.
The University of Huddersfield’s Digital Media department is at the cutting edge of the creative digital industries. From the world-class team in the in-house Canalside Studios, to the individual successes of students around the world, the Digital Media department is well-placed to host this year’s X48 GameCamp.
Canalside Studios is an amateur software house which was founded just four years ago at the University and is now in partnership with software giant Microsoft. It comprises a team of highly-skilled computer games programming and design students. The beginning of their success came in 2007, when they came second out of 3,600 entrants worldwide in the Microsoft Dream Build Play contest.
Barely a year later, Canalside Studios picked up the Imagine Cup in games design at Microsoft UK for their environmental game, ‘Drizzle’, and then in March last year the team worked tirelessly to win five of the seven prizes on offer at last year’s X48 competition, where they produced a Darwin-themed game in just 24 hours.
And just six months ago, the team won all three categories they entered at the Games Republic Showcase competition, held at Sheffield Hallam University.
The summer of 2009 saw the coming together of Canalside Studios and Microsoft for the release of the studio’s game Yo-Ho Kablammo, a pirate-themed arcade game. The game was released online through XBox Live Arcade, but the team barely had time to enjoy its success before moving on to their latest game ‘Missing Reel’ – a B-movie themed shooter – which was released last week.
Jay Walton and Dan Fitchie with their
X48 winning game 'Seavolution'.
Not only is the Studio working closely with Microsoft, but they are currently working closely with the Royal Armouries – the organisation responsible for historic weapons in the Tower of London, The Royal Armouries in Leeds and Fort Nelson in Portsmouth. They are working on educational games, programmed by Canalside with the help of other University departments, which are expected to appear at Leeds Royal Armouries in the next twelve months. The pirate theme will also play a part, as they produce an educational game to coincide with a new pirate exhibition at the Frazier International History Museum in Kentucky.
Canalside Studios is made up of students Ben Blakemore, William Leonard, Oscar Mullen, Barnaby Smith, Chris White, Dave Connelly, Lap Pun Cheung and Helen Fricker, with guidance from course leaders Dr Duke Gledhill and Ruth Taylor and department leader Damian De Luca.
