seriousgames.ie » Events

DIT takes first place in the XNA Challenge @ Games Fleadh 2011

admin — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 22:29:59 +0000

Congratulations to team Cross Frogger who this week competed against sixteen teams from institutes across Ireland to take the coveted XNA Game Studio Ireland Challenge College Cup (top prize overall) in the XNA Ireland Challenge. The contest invites students to recreate a classic arcade game using Microsoft’s XNA technology. This year’s theme was the classic Konami arcade game Frogger which celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. The team of BSc in Computer Science students developed three new levels that a player can interact with using Microsoft’s Kinect full-body motion capture system. The international judges from the games industry were also impressed with the team’s novel use of procedural audio that synchronises with gameplay. The team of Liangchuan Gu (Iric), Zhensheng Tan (Simon), Xini Jia (Luke) and Wei Yuan (Lily) from DT228/3 also were awarded a special prize of Best Original Innovation in Gaming at the contest. The team who took time out of their work placement’s to develop the game and compete in the competition, learned how to program XNA as part of the Game Design and Ludology module taught by School of Computing lecturer Hugh McAtamney.
Team mentor Dr Bryan Duggan says: “Games programming presents students with the opportunity to master difficult subjects such as object orientated programming and maths by doing something creative and fun. Additionally the team have developed an amazing portfolio piece that will impress any potential employer.”

Other winners at Games Fleadh 2011 were team FrogSplat (DT228/2 students Alan Egan, Jimmy Bryce and Emmanuelle Adenola) who won the Best in Animation prize. These students were particularly notable as they taught themselves XNA and the C# programming language in order to compete in the competition. A third DIT team, Delicious Frogs Legs – Yitong Hu (Max) and Ge Feng (Steve) from DT228/2 were awarded Best in Original Gameplay for their novel game Anti-Frogger, while DT228/1 students Stephen Crowther, Bo Sheng and Hao Guan competed in the Robocode robot programming competition.

Team Imaginote represent Ireland in Poland this week

admin — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 15:04:34 +0000

DIT School of Computing students Nikola Nevin, Marco Castorina, Jonathan Lynch and Philip Kavanagh are representing Ireland in the Software Design Competition of the Imagine Cup in Poland this week. The team have developed an amazing music therapy application called Imaginote and have spend the last week running user trials with Enable Ireland, the Central Remedial Clinic, Tyrrelstown Educate Together National School and St Catherine’s Special School in Wicklow.

Support and follow the team by becomming a fan of the team facebook page:

Follow the teams progress on the Imaginote Facebook Page

Watch a movie all about Imaginote

Vote for Team Imaginote in the People’s Choice awards

Game Developer Conference 2010 – report

admin — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:10:55 +0000

you can follow my take on the game developer conference 2010 on http://www.gamedevelopers.ie

Team DIT Wins @ the Imagine Cup Software Design Finals

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 22:00:17 +0000

Success today for two DIT School of Computing teams in the Imagine Cup Software Design Finals which were hosted in Gleeson Theatre, DIT Kevin St. After two days of intense presentations in Microsoft’s Campus and in DIT, “Team Imaginote” were announced outright winners while “Team Cloud Hands” took second place. This represents the culmination of nine months of hard word for both teams and is a fantastic achievement for the students. Their projects have huge potential for further development and are a great example of how technology innovation can change lives – and the world. Team Imaginote will go on to represent Ireland at the world Imagine Cup finals in Poland in July.

Team Imaginote – A music and physical therapy application using sound beams (sonic momement sensors) that translate physical movements into beautiful patterns and sounds. The software was developed by Nikola Nevin(DT228) and Marco Castorina(DT584) with the help of Enable Ireland and Tyrrelstown Educate Together National School.

Team Cloud Hands – An amazing Tai Ch training simulation using 3D graphics, motion capture, speech recognition and augmented reality developed by Frank Han (DT584), Johnathan Lynch (DT584), Jonathan Plunket(DT228) and Xu Haoming(UL).

Check out photo’s from the event

Movies from Peter Molyneux and Peter Connolly’s talks now online

admin — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:14:28 +0000

View the movies here

Xbox Indies: The champions of the hidden marketplace

admin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:14:05 +0000

A great article about XBL Indie Games.

Dare To Be Digital – 2010 Call

admin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:45:26 +0000

Only 2 weeks to entry deadline!

Dare 2010 – Make Games

The Digital Hub Development Agency, on behalf of the Department of Education and Science, in association with Belfast City Council and the University of Abertay, Dundee, Scotland are inviting Irish students to enter Dare to Be Digital 2010.

Dare to be Digital is an internationally renowned games development competition for talented computer science and art students to develop a prototype video game. Teams of 5 students, usually a mix of artists, programmers and audio, assemble in a development hothouse in Scotland for 10 weeks (Monday 7th June to Tuesday 17th August 2010), receiving daily support and weekly training sessions from industry specialists.

10 weeks based in Dundee
A project fee of £1,700 is given to each student
£200 team budget

This unique competition is open to Irish further education and 3^rd Level students who are interested in developing a new innovative product in the games sector suitable for any platform. The Digital Hub Development Agency will pay for travel to the interview.

Dare to be Digital presents a unique opportunity for students. Many of the contestants from previous years have been hired by games companies on completion of the competition.

Deadline for entries is 28th March 2010

Apply online at: http://www.daretobedigital.com

Please email any queries to: enquiries@daretobedigital.com

From:

Digital Hub Development Agency

Digital Exchange
Crane Street

The Digital Hub
Dublin 8

t: +353 1 4806200

f: +353 1 4806201

e: elevate@thedigitalhub.com

Success for DIT @ Games Fleadh 2010

admin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:42:45 +0000

Congratulations to DT228/1 student Jamie Osler whose robot Eeyore 2 came second in the National Robocode Finals in Thurles, Tipperary yesterday. Jamie’s robot battled against bots from thirteen other third level institutes in an exciting competition which lasted most of the day. Robocode is a Java programming competition aimed at first year computer science students, where students code the artificial intelligence for a simulated robot tank that battles against tanks coded by students from other colleges. Jamie’s bot incorporated advanced targeting and enemy avoidance code demonstrating his mastery of algorithm design and advanced programming concepts.

DIT students also took prizes in the XNA Ireland challenge with their novel versions of the classic arcade game PacMan:

Best in Game Design
Chris Harrington, DT228/3

Best Original Innovation
Wenxin Shi, DT228/3
Bin Han, DT228/3
Han Zhou, DT228/3

Best Multiplayer
Hugh O’Higgins, DT228/3
Stephen O’Hara, DT228/3
Derek Browne, DT228/3
Conor Hynes, DT228/3

More prize winners at Games Fleadh 2010 were DT228/3 students Derek Drowne , Hugh O’Higgins, Zachery Davidson and Brendan Marsh who won the Christian Martin Counter-Strike Source Memorial Colleges Cup. This is new competition at Games Fleadh and the cup is awarded in memory of Tipperary Institute student and Counter-Strike Source ace Christian Martin.

Finally DT228/3 student Stephen O’Hara won a Nokia 5320 phone courtesy of IrishDev.com.

Photos from the event

Download the Interview with Hugh McAtamney on Newstalk 106′s Cultureshock Programme

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:23:10 +0000

hugh was invited on as a special guest for the hour from 10-11pm on february 26th, right after the launch of the MSC.

you can dowload and listen here.

http://www.zshare.net/download/7316748805ca3785/

Pictures from last nights MSc Launch/JDIFF Event

admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:36:20 +0000

My photos from last nights event are now online.