Fareham College students beat industry experts to win University of Portsmouth ‘Game Jam’

Talented Level 3 Gaming and Computing students at Fareham College, the UK’s College of the Year, have won “Best Overall Game” at this year’s University of Portsmouth’s ‘Game Jam’, beating university students and industry experts to take the top award.

Organised every year by the university and held on its campus, the competition sees teams compete over the course of a single week to create a working video game that takes inspiration from one of three randomly selected topics or articles sourced from Wikipedia. The themes this year were Irish boy band D-Side, children’s rights activist David L. Levy, and the Keralan village of Pallissery.

This year saw the biggest turnout for the competition to date, with over 150 competitors taking part. Those competing included university staff and students, alumni and industry professionals, with Fareham College students the only participants from FE.

The winning game, which was developed by second year students Jordan Thompson, Jack Sibley, Mantas Ruigys and Connor O`Brien, was “Mic drop” – a competitive party game for up to four people in which players compete to hold on to a microphone for one minute while the other players try to shoot it out of their hand. The game was praised for its novel movement/targeting system.

Ashley Michael, Head of Department International, Enterprise and Digital Industries at Fareham College, said:

“Congratulations to our students on their fantastic achievement at this year’s ‘Game Jam’. Not only have they demonstrated great skill and professionalism this week by competing against a pool of industry experts and university students, but to win the top award of best game is absolutely outstanding. I could not be prouder.”

On winning the award, Jordan Thompson said:

“I couldn’t believe it when our game was announced as best overall game. Game development is my passion and events like these can offer great insight into what working to a tight deadline and with a small team is like. It also gives you the chance to meet and speak to likeminded people who you might get the opportunity to work with someday.”