Competition winners who designed characters for a new video game have seen their creations come to life with the Devon Collaborative Outreach Network (DCON) and a local video game company.
Two winners and runners up from both Stoke Damerel Community College and Tavistock Community College visited Plymouth University last week after designing characters for ‘Tap Tournament’, a new game by So Good Studios.
Plymouth graduate, Jack Gill, set up So Good Studios through business incubation centre the Formation Zone, and launched the competition earlier this year alongside DCON to raise awareness of what is possible through higher education.
DCON – a collaboration of Plymouth University, Plymouth College of Art, University of St Mark & St John and partner colleges – increases participation in higher education among under represented groups. It does this via outreach activity with funding from the Higher Education Council for England (HEFCE).
Following a number of submissions from the year eight cohorts at both schools, the eventual winners had the chance to press the ‘enter’ button which saw their characters arrive in the game for the first time.
As well as watching their characters take shape, the students also met key staff from the Formation Zone and So Good Studios, and experienced Plymouth University’s Immersive Vision Theatre, wave pool and ship simulator.
Jack, who read computing and games development at Plymouth University, said:
“It was great to meet the students today and to show them exactly what their characters looked like onscreen. We had such a hard time choosing the best characters but the winners, Sir Jestalot and Fred the Colourful, were just brilliant. The key things that helped us set up So Good Studios were a great computing course, our own friendship, and support from the University – none of which would have happened had we not ventured into higher education. I really hope some of the school students today will be inspired by our story and consider higher education too.”
Bill Thrall, Outreach Officer at DCON, said:
“DCON aims to engage schools and colleges with higher education in our region and it was fantastic to welcome the students to Plymouth today. Thanks to the work being conducted by Plymouth University, the University of St Mark and St John and Plymouth College of Art, doors are being opened for lots of students who might not otherwise have known anything about the opportunities.”
