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Finalists Announced For Microsoft's Imagine Cup Game Design Competition
If watching behind the scenes videos of massive gaming projects doesn't give aspiring designers enough envy, seeing what some student geniuses are up to in the world of indie games should do it. With far more limited resources, the young finalists of Microsoft's Imagine Cup competition have still been able to make incredible strides in creating innovative worlds and stories.
Microsoft has now announced the 10 final teams. They come from all over the world and have developed the best in student games. The competition will conclude July 8-11 in St. Petersburg, Russia, where the finalists will compete for the $50,000 top prize.
86 teams in total will be heading to Russia for the finals of all of the Imagine Cup competitions. The other categories include innovation and world citizenship. All categories focus on creating software, applications, and games using various Windows based technology.
The titles developed are for Windows tablets, Windows 8 software, and Windows phones. While the preferred genres and native languages of all the teams vary, the 10 finalists of the game design competition all share a common trait of brilliance.
The finalists set to compete are:
- Team UMA hail all the way from Angola and will be presenting Não Te Irrite, which translates to Don't Fret in English.
- Team Zeppelin Studio of Austria will present Schein. Schein is a platform game in which the player must use light to his advantage to navigate through a murky swamp.
- Team WickedGames comes from the Czech Republic and are thinking big with their augmented reality game reSOUND.
- Team Banzai Lightning of France have created Seed, a bright and colorful side-scrolling title featuring touch controls for Windows tablets.
- Team Seven Worlds, also of France, gained their finalist spot with Kameon, which features a heroic chameleon trying to save a princess.
- Team Solite Studio of Indonesia aimed for a more educational approach with their mathematics learning game Save The Hamster.
- Team PsyTrack of Puerto Rico introduce Piggy Spanker, in which players help Piggy take down bacon-loving chefs everywhere.
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Team Quad Damage of the competition's final destination, Russia, have created LaserCraft. LaserCraft uses Windows phone technology and sensor-equipped guns and vests to create a multiplayer game experience using scenarios like capture the flag.
- Team Space Fighters of Turkey have developed Space Fight X as a classic 2D shooter with the backdrop of space intended to be nostalgic for fans of older titles.
- Team Bluetooth of Vietnam created Green Heaven: The Last Hope to raise awareness of environmental concerns and to encourage gamers everywhere to reduce, reuse and recycle.
To follow the teams and see which title wins, check out the Imagine Cup website.
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