UNIVERSITY NEWS LAST UPDATED : 30 AUGUST 2018
The New Technology Institute recently hosted their end of year Summer Show, celebrating the work produced by their undergraduate and postgraduate students over the past academic year and showcasing it to high profile industry guests from AAA studios, Rare and Codemasters.
It began with a demonstration of a PlayStation 4 game, ‘Echoes’ created by postgraduate students. The game follows a female protagonist, Kira, as she explores an ancient burial ground and breaks her way through crystal barriers and defeats monsters to progress through the levels.
The team working on ‘Echoes’ comprised of 16 postgraduate students who specialised in either production, design, artwork or coding and within just six months they created the multiplatform video game using Unreal Engine.
The demonstration was followed by a presentation of the undergraduate complimentary game, ‘Echoes Origins’, set in the same world as ‘Echoes’ but follows a different protagonist and timeline. The 41 undergraduate students involved with producing the game specialised in production, design, art, coding and VFX and worked together to create ‘Echoes Origins’ in just six weeks! In addition to the student teams working on the games themselves, the soundtracks to both were also created by student musicians from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
The Summer Show was an opportunity for students to demonstrate the projects they had been working on, not only to their peers, families and tutors but perhaps more importantly, to members of the video game industry.
Following the presentations, the audience was given the opportunity to ask questions about the game and even have a go at playing them. Both games were well received and the industry members congratulated the students on their professionalism and the quality of work produced.
For many students the end of year show was a great opportunity to get some final advice from industry experts before embarking into the world of work themselves. Nick Buncombe from Codemasters told students the importance of going the extra mile when applying for jobs, being passionate about the area of the industry they wanted to join and showing employers how they were different from their peers. This advice was echoed by Louise O’Connor from Rare, who added how important it was to go in with confidence when attending interviews.
Louise also sat on a panel discussion later in the day that also included more industry guests and key academics from the School. They discussed a wide range of topics relating to the video games industry and provided students with an insight into how they got into the industry, their tips for success and what they think the future holds for video games.
The courses within the New Technology Institute are created in conjunction with the industry, ensuring the skills students learn are the same skills they will need when seeking employment. Reflecting on her daughter’s time on the course, Harriet Frayling’s mother Wendy commented:
For a full overview of the day take a look at our NTI end of year show video below: