28 November 2013

Students attempt to wow industry professionals with games

Photo opportunity: 3-5pm on Friday, 29th November at the Queen Mother Building, University of Dundee.

Addictive puzzles for the iPad and games aimed at helping to teach autistic children are among the exhibits awaiting representatives of leading computer games companies when they visit the University of Dundee tomorrow.

Students from the University's School of Computing will be hoping to make an impression on potential employers at the annual 'Industry Spotlight on Student Games' event.

As part of their coursework, third-year Applied Computing and Computing Science students have been learning how to apply software engineering concepts to computer games. This has culminated in them designing and creating their own games, which they will demo at the showcase.

Students will receive feedback from senior industry figures that will help them write games to a professional standard, develop their ideas further, and make contacts that will enhance their career prospects after graduation.

Dr Karen Petrie, from the University's School of Computing, said, 'This is a great opportunity for students to meet with potential employers and make an impression on them. The students have done a really fantastic job and the standard of games created is fantastic. They can only improve with the feedback they will receive from professionals from within the computer games industry.'

'I am sure the industry representatives will be impressed by what they see, and will be indulging in some talent-spotting.'

Among the student exhibiting are:

• Jekabs Stikans, who has written an addictive puzzle game for the iPad.
• Ron Schonenberg, who is the first student to write a game for the Windows phone
• Jade Woodward, who has written a game targeted at the very specialised market of teaching children with autism.

Some of the professionals they will be meeting are themselves graduates of the Applied Computing programme at Dundee. This year students have been allowed to choose which platform they create for, so games written for the PC, iPad, iPhone, Xbox 360, Windows Phone and Android devices will be premiered at the event.

The students will meet with Tag Games, Outplay, Denki, and NCR at the event, which takes place at the Queen Mother Building from 3pm to 5pm on Friday, 29th November.

For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07854 953277