Technology

Posted on November 7, 2017 by staff

Game developers win government-funded competition

Technology

Two start-up video game studios have been awarded grants after winning a government-funded graduate talent competition.

Mochi Mode from Cardiff and representing the University of South Wales and Shuttershade Studios from the University of Huddersfield are the winners of Tranzfuser.

The two studios were each awarded a £25,000 grant from the government’s UK Games Fund after beating 21 other teams.

The competition began in the summer and each team was given 10 weeks to take their idea for a game from concept to playable demos, which were then showcased in front of 80,000 fans and a panel of judges at video games festival, EGX.

“The UK games industry is a fantastic success story and we want to see it continue to grow from strength to strength,” said creative industries minister Matt Hancock.

“The Tranzfuser programme is aimed at identifying and supporting the talented young games developers and the original and innovative games they are producing right here in the UK.”

Mochi Mode won over the judges and public with their game of bright visuals and simple one touch gameplay that sees players controlling a herd of cows and guiding them to safety through a host of colourful obstacles.

Shuttershade Studios, made up of a team of four graduates, created a virtual reality game, VR Party Ware, primarily consisting of a collection of various minigames.

The UK Games Fund and Tranzfuser are both funded as part of the £4m government programme of games development and talent funding announced in 2016, run by UK Games Talent and Finance Community Interest Company (UKGTF).

Paul Durrant, UKGTF’s founder, said: “All of the teams worked hard after securing their place on Tranzfuser 2017. Each of the 23 teams has put in a huge effort and each has benefitted significantly from real-world learning throughout.

“The winning teams are the ones that best managed the scope of their projects, had a shared creative objective across the team and better understood the target audience for their particular games.”