A team of games development students from IT Sligo has taken home the largest trophy haul from Ireland’s premier video games competition.
The 2016 Games Fleadh, is an annual digital games programme festival and is recognised as the premier gaming event for third level institutions across the island of Ireland,
Now into its 13th year, this year’s event was hosted by Limerick Institute of Technology.
Seán Hayes (Clare), James Kinsella (Sligo), Shauna Moffatt (Sligo), and John McGowan (Leitrim) are all Year 3 BSc in Computing in Games Development students at IT Sligo and they represented the college at this year’s event.
Their entry was a 3D game, called Laochra (Warriors), which won three of the main category awards.
“We wanted something Irish so we looked at the ancient legends of Ireland,” explained Shauna. “We picked four main characters: Queen Maeve, Fionn McCumhaill, Fintán and Cúchulainn. We designed the game around them. They’re fighting over their land in a randomly generated maze. The last man – or lady – standing, wins the title of the crown.”
The institute won the top prize in the following categories: Best in Visual Engineering, Best in use of Microsoft Cloud Technologies and Best in Multiplayer Technologies. This constituted the largest haul of individual awards by a single institution at this year’s event.
The judging panel for the Games Fleadh was made up of industry professionals and included American John Romero, the co-creator of seminal 1993 video game Doom, who is now based in Galway.
“They were impressed by the 3D maze generation and the multi-player aspect of the game,” said James. “They seemed to like the ability our game had to have several players simultaneously online, which was the most challenging parts of the game’s development.”
“The fact that our team won an award for visual engineering – how you implement the 3D aspect of the game – is testament to the quality of the IT Sligo entry” said Paul Powell, who lectures in Games Development at the Institute. “To win three awards is a terrific achievement in what is the biggest third level games competition in the country.”
IT Sligo students have a proven track record at the Games Fleadh, winning their first awards in 2009 on their first year of entry. Since then, they have gone on to collect a number of the top awards, including Best Original Game Art in 2015, Best in Animation and Best Xbox 360 Game (2013), Best in Original Audio Music (2012) and Best Original Games Play and overall runner up in 2010.
The Games Fleadh isupported by Microsoft Ireland, EA Games, Ubisoft and the Irish Computer Society
Find out more about studying Games Development at IT Sligo here.
Photo caption:
IT Sligo’s Games Fleadh award winners 2016 with the poster of their 3D video game ‘Laochra’.
Front row: John McGowan and Shauna Moffatt
Back row: James Kinsella & Seán Hayes.