Game Development Contest Results

Last night's contest for my class was amazing.

http://www.gamedev360.com/contest07

The RailGunner game is an amazing piece of work built in about six weeks. Jess and Noah really outdid themselves. Even the second (T-Orc) and third place (Doom Slayer III) games were very nicely done. Rail Gunner and T-Orc are fully playable. Doom Slayer III while not completely done had a ton of code to it. He even did a trailer that was hillarious and everyone enjoyed. I'm hoping he uploads the trailer for others to see.

All in all I think everyone enjoyed themselves and I think a number of the students will get jobs. There was enough time at the end for the industry folks to mingle with the students and I'm sure a number of them will get calls.

One of the things that became apparent and I had sort of forgotten about it was the fact that half of my class were seniors and half were freshman. I went really fast in the first few classes knowing the freshmen were out of their experience level and hoping they would drop. A number of them did, but a few of them stuck with it and while they didn't have winning games they did have some impressive pieces of work. Although I should mention that Jess (one of the winners) is only a sophmore. Brilliant.

One of the crowd favorites was a freshman game called Beer Sweeper. It was fun to watch as Luis kept raching around the virtual recreation of an actual dorm room (it was very close, I once lived in that same dorm) the keys started to change and it became very hard for him to control. It got some good laughs.

The fourth place game Ork Fight had a ton of AI code and Chris got the orcs to fight on teams with the other players. It was very fun to watch. He had some funny stories about problems while he was working on the AI. Some of the problems sounded almost human.

The fifth place game was a huge endeavor. Given a few more weeks I think Vinnie would have taken first place. He's going to be the Peter Jackson type some day. Double majoring in Film and Philosophy and a minor in computer science he made some major engine modifications and is well on his way to a significant creation.

All in all it was a great semester. I worked way too hard at it and didn't make much money, but I love doing it and I'm looking forward to at least taking a semester off. I'll decided later in the year if I'll do it again.