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Future Skills: Game Jam
Blog page tags
- Future Skills
- Computing, cyber and AI
This year’s Kingston University Game Jam was sponsored by Tencent, the biggest game publisher worldwide.
The four-day hackathon, a Future Skills Apply experience, brought together almost 100 students from across the University – from game design to music technology – to tackle a challenge created by Kingston alumnus Luke Parlin, Tencent UX Accessibility Researcher John Dicken, Tencent’s AI Research team and Senior Lecturer Hope Caton.
Student teams were tasked to create a game on the theme of ‘Equilibrium’ inspired by the famous Thanos quote from the Avengers: "Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.” The brief also required students to consider the game design implications on accessibility and the use of AI technology.
Game Jams allow us to go all in on creativity and explore the very depths of game design. My favourite part about this Game Jam was the theme; it was simply brilliant and opened tons of different variations for creativity to flourish. Watching and playing other teams' games was just the cherry on top.
During the hackathon students attended lightning talks with Tencent's AI research team and Luke Parlin to help develop their projects. At the end of the hackathon, 18 projects were presented to the Game Jam jury of academics, alumni and Tencent staff who assessed projects based on use of the theme, accessibility, creativity and innovation, fun factor and quality.
The industry professionals helped boost my confidence in my ability to take on new and challenging roles within the production and music industry, since this was my first time making sound for a game, and the response to my efforts was positive and reinforcing.
The winning teams, Tile Tussle, Light Lost Astronaut and The Last Fragment, received prizes and goodie bags, and were invited to an Insight Day at Tencent’s London office to present their games to Tencent and LightSpeed Studio professionals.
Game Jam built resilience by requiring sustained effort through time constrained challenges – a crucial skill to have within the constantly evolving gaming industry, most recently with the AI-driven shift. As with all games, collaboration is a must. We made sure to fully utilise all our individual skills, combining into a cohesive result via tight teamwork and clear communication.
Tencent also ran an Explore Game Development session during Kingston University’s Careers Festival. 150 students learned about different business areas from Tencent staff, including Kingston graduate and Tencent R&D Engineer Mira Chami, and students had the opportunity to have their CV reviewed by Tencent’s HR team.
This exciting collaboration has enabled Kingston students to gain valuable skills, experience and insights directly from industry experts. It’s also been a great opportunity to showcase the talent of our students, which has led to some Kingston students securing paid internships at Tencent in AI research, games operations and technical art.
Game Jam gives students a valuable opportunity to apply what they learn in a real, hands-on environment. I was very impressed by the creativity, originality and energy shown by the students. Many of the projects were genuinely refreshing and demonstrated strong potential in game design, storytelling and player experience.
