Nokia awards Mobile Games University Competition winners
Austria and America take the top spots
The Mobile Games University Competition, hosted by game development community Nokia Forum, was designed to promote and showcase the next generation of mobile game developers, as well as explore the possibilities of future mobile gaming.
Two winners have just been selected from the 44 university entries from across the globe - Parsons The New School for Design from the US and the Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences.
“This competition reveals how the next generation of game designers will help redefine the very essence of gaming by emphasizing the crucial role of social communication,” says David Carroll, assistant professor of media design at Parsons The New School for Design, whose student’s text message-based social game Weekness took one of the top spots.
“We really wanted to maximize our use of handset features like sensors and camera technology - there are so many exciting innovations that can be applied to mobile games now,” explains Bernhard Aufreiter of Upper Austria University.
His team put together MooLan, a version of the classic Moon Lander, which uses a handset’s accelerometer and camera to control the game.
“We were really impressed by the standard of entries we received, especially seeing as the students had to develop these concepts in just a few weeks,” said Dr Mark Ollila, director of technology at Nokia.
“Games were judged on criteria including entertainment value, creativity and usability. This kind of competition really showcases the raw talent of our next-generation of mobile games developers and provides an insight into the potential of our industry.”
Both winners will now be attending this year’s GDC as guests of Nokia.
