Students at the University of the West of Scotland put their creative skills to the test during a challenge to create ready-to-play video games and animations in the space of 48-hours.

Fifty-nine students on the Computer Games Development and Computer Animation Arts courses recently gathered at the institution’s Paisley campus to take part in the institution’s first ever joint ‘GameJam’ and ‘AniJam’ event.

The university has run a successful AniJam event for the past 13 years, and this year marked the first GameJam challenge – with students on both courses collaborating through parallel activities in one major event.

While animation students explored the theme ‘parallel worlds collide’, producing work across stop motion, 2D and 3D animation, games students developed playable projects based on an ‘afterlife’ brief.

Participants remained on campus for the full 48 hours, supported by staff, with the event designed to simulate industry-style creative production under pressure - giving students the opportunity to collaborate, use their skills and develop their portfolio.

The GameJam challenge required students to build games from scratch – from concept to completion – culminating in presentations to a judging panel. Final projects were assessed on creativity, technical execution, gameplay and overall polish.

“Events like this not only bring students together but allow them to apply their skills in a fast-paced environment which prepares them for real-world industry challenges.

Gordon Morison, Dean of the School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of the West of Scotland

The joint winners of this year’s event were Computer Games Development Students, Kaitlin Evans, who won the top prize for her game, Mark is scared, and Christopher Abraham and Heather Brander as Sisyphus Studios, for their game, Graveyard Shift.

Kaitlin’s creation, Mark is scared, is a 2D platformer game where the player assumes the role of Mark, who is a Crypt keeper. He is deep at the bottom of a dark crypt, tending to the dead, which have come back to life. The aim is to help Mark escape from being eaten.

Kaitlin’s game was lauded for its many well-designed levels, a core platform with smooth jumping and fireballs to deal with pesky zombies.

Graveyard Shift by Christopher and Heather is a 3D immersive puzzler with a dark comedic twist. An overworked grim reaper tires of collecting souls and chooses to streamline the process by trapping humans in a series of deadly scenarios.

Escaping the reaper, the player is tasked to find creative solutions to get through each level. The game includes use of 3D environments and a clever puzzle design to challenge the player to get inventive when assessing each environment.

Gordon Morison, Dean of the School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of the West of Scotland, said: “It was a real joy to see our Computer Games Development and Computer Animation Arts students come together for the GameJam and AniJam event. We were blown away by the creativity and talent on display.

“Events like this not only bring students together but allow them to apply their skills in a fast-paced environment which prepares them for real-world industry challenges. A huge congratulations to this year’s winners – Kaitlin, Heather and Christopher for creating two fantastic games.”