GameCube third-person action title wins Swedish student developer contest.
April 6, 2005
[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Game Developer and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press]
GamePort | Pressrelease
2005-04-06
For the third time in a row the competition "Game Concept Challenge" (GCC) was held in Karlshamn, Sweden. The event took place between the 22nd and the 23rd of march this year and was arranged by GamePort AB, Mötesplats Upplevelseindustrin i Karlshamn and School Of Future Entertainment (SOFE).
The "Eventpartners" that made all this possible was GamePort AB, Sparbanken i Karlshamn, Wacom Technology Corporation, Player 1, Logitech Europe, Pringles, Custom Red Software Studios, School Of Future Entertainment (SOFE), Mötesplats Upplevelseindustrin i Karlshamn and GlobalFun Ab.
This year 200 - 300 people visited GCC. A number of different universities from all around Sweden had been invited to participate. Universities represented this year was Malmö University, University of Kalmar, Gotland University and Blekinge Institue Of Technology. Apart from these, GCC had a very appreciated visit from Kundskapsparken Hedmark in Norway.
The main event held at GCC was the competition with the same name. Here students from School of Future Entertainment (SOFE) and Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) concluded their seven week long Game Concept Course by presenting their computer game concepts in front of a jury. The jury consisted of experts from different areas within the gaming industry and this year included Mattias Nygren (GamePort), David Polfeldt (Bad Robot), Morten Remmer (Nordisk Film Interactive), Sam Sundberg (Goodgame), Martin Walfisz (Massive Entertainment) and Tobias Andersson (former Business Developer, DICE). The level of competence requried from the students is raised each time and this year many of the game concepts showed proof of exceptionally high standard. The game concept that finally won GCC 2005 was "No Matter What" with the following motivation from the jury:
"For a flawless presentation that generates an enormous curiosity and that would almost certainly guarantee further negotiations with a publisher. For a concept that immediately creates a longing to play the actual game - despite the fact that the amount of gameplay shown so far is minimal! The group has a clear vision with a complete and consistently executed concept. With their superb documentation they leave us with the conviction that they will be able to handle the many challenges they are about to face."
The winning game concept is according to the producers themselves a "...third person cartoon action game with goal puzzles for Gamecube". "No Matter What" is an espionage comedy with bizarre agents fighting each other in a comically twisted world.
The player start off by choosing an international agent that will be used to execute a certain mission somewhere around the world. The most characteristic feature will be to rig traps of different kinds, in a very "tom & jerry" kind of way, in order to hinder ones oppponent to complete his/her mission.
The students behind "No Matter What" are Micha Boström, Niclas Ottenfelt, Patrik Sjöberg, Christian Axelson, Philippe Neguembor, Magnus Hansson, Dennis Sandmark, Magnus Gideryd, Robin Hög-berg, Kostas Gialitakis and Dag Isaksson.
The winning team was rewarded with one year of financed prototype development, supported and managed by GamePort AB. On top of that they all recieved a personal subscription of the game magazine Player 1.
Other challenges held at GCC this year was "Wacom Concept Art Challenge", "Custom Red Code Challenge", "SOFE Speed Modeling Challenge" and "GlobalFun Game Awards 2005". The challenges focused on different areas of the game development process and presented challenges for both the coder and the graphic artist. Prizes for these competitions where sponsored by "Wacom Technology Corporation, Player 1, and Logitech Europe. Winners were:
Wacom Concept Art Challenge:
1:st prize: Mikael Melbris, Karlshamn
2:nd prize: Christer Wibert, Karlshamn
3:rd prize: Philippe Neuguembor, Karlshamn
Custom Red Code Challenge:
1:st prize: Anders Ekermo, Visby
2:nd prize: Andreas Johnsson, Karlshamn
3:rd prize: Nikolaus Theologou, Karlshamn
SOFE Speed Modeling Challenge:
Category "Animals": Philippe Neuguembor, Karlshamn
Category "Vehicles and Buildings": Dag Isaksson, Karlshamn
Category "Low-poly": Jonas Andersson, Karlshamn
Category "Hi-poly": Paul Hallberg, Karlshamn
"GlobalFun Awards 2005"
1:st prize: Robert Håkansson, Karlshamn
2:nd prize:
3:rd prize:
The winner, Robert Håkansson, was rewared with a chance to further develop his game concept in collaboration with GlobalFun. He was also handed 10.000 SEK in prize money and a cellular phone from Sony Ericsson.
Speakers at GCC were among others the movie director and writer Josef Fares, known for making the movies "Jalla Jalla" and "Kopps". In his lecture Josef talked about his personal view on computer games and movies and the relation between the two. The audience were allowed to freely ask questions during the lecture concerning the future of game development and movie production, something that led to a very open and interesting discussion.
Other speakers joined Josef Fares this year at GCC giving the visitors different perspectives on the game development industry of today. Tobias Sjögren, former Business Developer at DICE, shared his experience from the industry and Eric Robertsson, founder of spelplan.se and CEO of IGDA Sweden, talked about the future of game development in the nordic countries. Annika Olofsdotter Bergström, Project Manager for supermarit.se, shared her view on how women today relate to computer games and Sten Selander, Project Manager for Mötesplats Upplevelseindustrin i Karlshamn, talked about his visit to Game Development Conference (GDC) earlier this march.
GCC came to an end with price ceremonies and a great banquet at restaurant Gourmet Grön in Karlshamn.
More information about GCC can be found at:
For additional photos from the event and other questions regarding the pressrelease, please contact:
GamePort AB i Karlshamn
Mattias Nygren
+46 454 307171
Mötesplats Upplevelseindustrin i Karlshamn
Sten Selander
+46 454 307112
School of Future Entertainment
Leif Krig
+46 454 385930
You May Also Like
