Microsoft staff will be joining lecturers from the University of Derby to judge at the company sponsored Games@Derby Event. Taking place on December 19th, Games@Derby gives students a chance to showcase the games they have created to industry professionals, with various awards presented to the students who create the best games.
The 100 or so students involved in the event are all currently undertaking courses in game programming, modelling or animation, which are taught by experts from the fields of software and game production. Dr Tommy Thompson, the university’s Programme Leader for Computer Games Programming, reflected that most “computer games on sale in the shops…can take years to develop”. In contrast, the student teams undertaking courses at the University of Derby have undergone a “stripped down” version of the game design process, with a production cycle of a mere 12 weeks. Despite this, Dr Thompson is confident that the lecturers involved in the courses will have “utilised their industry experience to guide th[e] students” from initial concept to playable games.
Games@Derby will also showcase the work of independent game companies that have been set up by Derby graduates. Most notable of these are the Derby based Pillowdrift and Indieskies, both of which have published games in the Apple and Android stores. Other games on display have been published on the Xbox360, Windows Phone and Windows 8.
Games@Derby is a free event and the university would be delighted for visitors to come in and try out the students’ games (Although interest must first be registered on the university’s site). Students enrolled in the game centric courses will also be meet-able on the day. For those of you interested in going, the UK based Derby University can be found at Kedleston Road Site DE22 1GB, and the event itself will go from 3 to 7 pm. Information on the university’s courses can be found here.
