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Atmospheric and intriguing colour-swapping game Moeba wins bada Student Developer Challenge 2011

Small cells, big win

Atmospheric and intriguing colour-swapping game Moeba wins bada Student Developer Challenge 2011
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Team Quartic Llama (otherwise known as Erin Michno, Tom DeMajo, and Ian Reynolds) from the University of Abertay, Dundee, has won the inaugural bada Student Developer Challenge with its intriguing game Moeba.

Moeba is a side-scrolling colour-switching title with an eye-catching glowing neon look. Your task is to guide a pulsing amoeba through various "organic" tunnels, tapping cell-like enemies as the colours of the world matches their own.

Moeba impressed both the judges and the assembled journalists at the bada Student Developer Challenge 2011 Grand Final with its slick presentation, interesting concept, and professional-sounding ambient soundtrack.

Prizefighters

The second-place prize went to Seyeon Kim and Yongwong Yoon of the University of York for their original and entertaining spin on the humble alarm clock: Don't Be Lazy.

Rather than just ring when the alarm time is reached, Don't Be Lazy forces the user to play three quick-fire mini-games before the alarm shuts off, thereby stopping the user from simply rolling back to sleep.

Razvan Moisa from Kings College London managed to secure third place for his intriguing socially creative title Doodle Fight, which sees players drawing their own animated fighters and then voting for the most popular.

Knowledge is power

The bada Student Developer Challenge 2011, co-sponsored by Samsung and Pocket Gamer's parent company Steel Media, was set up to discover the best new coding talent from some of the UK's top universities.

Over the course of the past few months, over 350 students from 82 teams have toiled away to produce a bada app that would impress the judging panel and win the competition.

Each of the entries was judged on the level of innovation, suitability for the platform, commercial feasibility, and overall quality of the submission.

Will Wilson
Will Wilson
Will's obsession with gaming started off with sketching Laser Squad levels on pads of paper, but recently grew into violently shouting "Tango Down!" at random strangers on the street. He now directs that positive energy into his writing (due in no small part to a binding court order).