Students take game to the next level at leading Australian conference
In Summary
- Swinburne student-made game recognised at the Game Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP) game development conference
- GCAP is the leading Australian conference for game development
- Team planning to use the prize money to develop game for public release
A video game about a lost explorer has won a team of Swinburne students industry recognition at the Game Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP) game development conference.
The final-year games and interactivity student team named Emusement, was the winner of the GCAP Student Showcase with their game, Carta.
The Swinburne team competed against student-made games from all over the country.
“It feels incredible to have received this recognition,” says Emusement team member and Swinburne student Gordon Wu.
“It has given Carta more exposure than we imagined possible and also has provided the team the opportunity to network with the local industry.”
GCAP is the leading Australian conference for the game development, interactive media and screen tech industries, with over 1,000 attendees and representatives from almost every Australian game development company in attendance.
In Carta players must explore the paper world around them and help lost explorer Carta find their way home.
The team was awarded $1,000 from sponsors EA Firemonkeys, and plan to use the money to continue the development of Carta.
“Swinburne provided our team with a clear goal: the opportunity to showcase our game at PAX Australia,” Mr Wu says.
“This opportunity helped the team focus on creating something that they would be proud to show off to the general public.
"There was also a lot of work from our teacher Andrew Trevillian, who mentored us and provided us with an environment that allowed us to make Carta what it is.”
Games lecturer Andrew Trevillian says that maximising the opportunities for students to succeed is key to what Swinburne does.
“The opportunity that Swinburne provides for our final year games teams to showcase their projects at PAX Australia and conferences like GCAP is a huge boost to their confidence and career ambition,” he says.
“We now have graduate teams who’ve participated in this go on to form studios with those same projects, hiring newer Swinburne graduates to help them grow, thanks to our ongoing engagement with events like these.”
While the Emusement team is still undecided on what to do when they graduate from Swinburne this year, they are interested to continue working on the game and would like to get the game ready for release on mobile platforms.