Nix – Available to Download Now!
Posted: November 26, 2014 Filed under: Releases, Student Successes | Tags: Award Winner, British Library, Cryengine, Faye Allen, Fonthill Abbey, GameCity, Gothic, Jackson Rolls-Gray, newport computer games design, Newport Student Project, Nix, Oculus Rift, Off the Map 2014, Sebastian Filby, University of South Wales, USW Games Leave a commentNix is available for Download Now! – Nix is the winner of the 2014 Off the Map competition.
Nix has been created by Jackson Rolls-Gray, Sebastian Filby and Faye Allen. The team created an underwater journey through Fonthill Abbey, the once-stunning Gothic revival country house in Wiltshire, which was demolished in 1846 after the collapse of its spectacular 300-foot tower twenty years earlier. Nix challenges gamers to reconstruct theAbbey via a series of puzzles in a spooky underwater world. It uses Oculus Rift, to enable the user to virtually explore the Abbey in its original splendour. The team used original drawings, maps of the estate and sounds held in the British Library’s collections.
The Off The Map competition is a collaboration between the British Library, Crytek and GameCity. It challenges higher education students based in the UK to create games inspired by the British Library’s collections, using Crytek’s cutting edge real-time technology Ceyengine.
The 2014 Off The Map competition accompanies the British Library’s current exhibition Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagination. Curators handpicked a number of items, ranging from maps, sounds, text, images, illustrations and architectural plans, to provide three Gothic themes for entrants to base their videogames on. These were author William Beckford’s home Fonthill Abbey, Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Masque of the Red Death and the seaside town of Whitby, which features in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Beneath the Crimson Moon – Available to Download Now!
Posted: November 11, 2014 Filed under: Awards, Student Successes | Tags: Available to Download, Beneath the Crimson Moon, British Library, Crytek, Edgar Allen Poe, GameCity, Gothic, Masque of the Red Death, newport computer games design, Off the Map 2014, USW, USW Computer Games Design, USW Games, Whitby Leave a commentBeneath the Crimson Moon is available for Download Now! Get it today a give it a go, it’s a great game.
Beneath The Crimson Moon is an exploration puzzle game in which the player must find objects that can be destroyed. When destroyed, the materials gathered, can then be used to navigate obstacles by re-building other objects such as bridges or ladders. The game is fully voiced with a narrative and story. Team Members: Sam Beale – Visual Concept Designer, Zack Finley – Mechanic Designer, Gary Kings – Narrative and Audio Designer, Ashely Lake – 3D Asset Designer, Rob Pearce – Level Designer, Mitch Leatherdale – Level Designer.
Beneath the Crimson Moon was a finalist at Off the Map 2014.
The Off The Map competition is a collaboration between the British Library, Crytek and GameCity. It challenges higher education students based in the UK to create games inspired by the British Library’s collections, using Crytek’s cutting edge real-time technology Ceyengine.
The 2014 Off The Map competition accompanies the British Library’s current exhibition Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagination. Curators handpicked a number of items, ranging from maps, sounds, text, images, illustrations and architectural plans, to provide three Gothic themes for entrants to base their videogames on. These were author William Beckford’s home Fonthill Abbey, Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Masque of the Red Death and the seaside town of Whitby, which features in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Great Week at GameCity 9!
Posted: November 5, 2014 Filed under: Alumni, Events, Student Successes | Tags: Beneath the Crimson Moon, British Library, computer games design, Congo War Child, Fragments, GameCity, Gisbourne Industries, Mike Bithell, newport computer games design, Nix, Off the Map 2014, SimRaiders, USW, USW Games, Volume Leave a commentGameCity9 Highlights
Once again this year we made our annual pilgrimage to GameCity in Nottingham, to completely immerse ourselves in games!
With talks and workshops from State of Play the creators of Lumino City, Christos Reid from Failnaut, James Parker’s fantastic Wise Old Games’ Owl, Ian Livingstone and Richard Bartle, Ed Stern, Chris Avellone, Zoe Quinn and Eline Muijres to mention a few! As we’ll as getting to play loads of fantastic games in the ‘Open’ galleries.
There was also an exciting announcement from Mike Bithell (a 2007 graduate) and Gisbourne Industries about the upcoming game Volume, but more on that in another post.
It was also great to hear that GameCity will now become a permanent feature in Nottingham with the National Videogame Arcade opening in March 2015.
Showcase
We spent the whole day on Wednesday showing off some of the games created but current and recently graduated students of the USW Games Design course.
These included, Nix (Jackson Rolls-Gray, Sebastian Filby and Faye Allen), Beneath the Crimson Moon (Zack Finley, Sam Beale, Gary Kings, Rob Pearce, Ashley Lake and Mitchell Letherdale), SimRaiders (Matt Stockham) and Fragments (Adam Curtis). Nix went on to win this year’s Off The Map competition, but there will be more on that on another post. Ollie Elliot (a 2011 graduate) also brought along his new game Congo War Child.
All of last year’s graduating games can be seen on our 2014 Showreel…
More videos are available on the USW Games YouTube Channel and on USW Games Twitter.
USW Games Design students win Off The Map 2014 with thier game Nix
Posted: November 4, 2014 Filed under: Awards, Student Successes | Tags: Beneath the Crimson Moon, British Library, Cryengine, Fonthill Abbey, GameCity, newpoer, newport computer games design, Newport Student Project, Nix, Oculus Rift, Off the Map 2014, Student Project, University of South Wales, USW, Winners 1 CommentWe are very pleased to announce that a team of students from the USW Computer Games Design course has won Off the Map 2014, a competition run by The British Library, Crytek and GameCity.
Off The Map 2014 Winners
Nix by Jackson Rolls-Gray, Sebastian Filby and Faye Allen. The team created an underwater journey through Fonthill Abbey, the once-stunning Gothic revival country house in Wiltshire, which was demolished in 1846 after the collapse of its spectacular 300-foot tower twenty years earlier. Nix challenges gamers to reconstruct theAbbey via a series of puzzles in a spooky underwater world. It uses Oculus Rift, to enable the user to virtually explore the Abbey in its original splendour. The team used original drawings, maps of the estate and sounds held in the British Library’s collections.
Once again this year we had two teams short listed in the final, the other was Beneath the Crimson Moon by Zack Finley, Sam Beale, Gary Kings, Rob Pearce, Ashley Lake and Mitchell Letherdale.
The Off The Map competition is a collaboration between the British Library, Crytek and GameCity. It challenges higher education students based in the UK to create games inspired by the British Library’s collections, using Crytek’s cutting edge real-time technology Ceyengine.
The 2014 Off The Map competition accompanies the British Library’s current exhibition Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagination. Curators handpicked a number of items, ranging from maps, sounds, text, images, illustrations and architectural plans, to provide three Gothic themes for entrants to base their videogames on. These were author William Beckford’s home Fonthill Abbey, Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Masque of the Red Death and the seaside town of Whitby, which features in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.