St Martin’s Institute of Higher Education, Ħamrun, recently organised its fourth annual Games Development Challenge, in which further and higher education students and recent graduates formed teams and developed an original digital game over a five-month period. This year’s challenge was to build a fun game to enhance the experience and educational aspects of Maltese culture.
Out of six teams competing in the challenge, four reached the final. The winners were No Photos, Please! by The Basement Studios, composed of Andreas Grech, Cameron Saliba and Richard Schembri. The game was also voted to have the best digital art.
The runner-up was the game Bombit by Hex Dev Studios, made up of Josef Farrugia, Kris Camilleri and Jeremy Vassallo. The game also received the best audio award.
Third place went to the game Relic Busters by Ad Astra Game Studios, made up of Mark Bugeja, Sean Savona, Nicky Theuma, Malcolm Tanti and Miriana Schembri.
The adjudicating panel was led by Ingo Mesche of AV Technologies, and included Dr Pippin Barr of the Institute of Digital Games, University of Malta, Nilsen Filc of Puzzl, Andrew Spanswick of Ammo City, and Maggie Morgan, Danjeli Schembri and John Capozzi of TRC Family Entertainment.
To play the finalists’ games, visit gamedev.stmartins.edu.