Recently, two teams from the Software School of Xiamen University have come out top in the ID@XBOX National Collegiate Game Development Championship, bringing home the coveted title of national champion and “Microsoft’s Special Choice Award” respectively.
Microsoft organized this competition among China's college students with the aim to help the latter to showcase their talent and unleash their creativity in game development by virtue of Microsoft’s powerful platforms such as Windows 10 PC、Xbox One、Windows MR. More than 200 teams from over 100 universities took part in this contest. After fierce rivalry in the preliminary and semifinal rounds, only 12 teams advanced to the final, and two XMU teams secured their places in the final.
The game called “The amazing adventure of two-dimensional creatures” was developed by Zhao Zhuang, a senior digital media technology major, and Chen Xu, a third-year graduate student of XMU. They created a unique 2D+3D gaming experience, and developed a special version of the game for Xbox One. Their remarkable designs and demonstration impressed the judges and audiences, enabling them to rank top among the teams from across China, eventually bringing them the champion title as well as a prize of 50,000 RMB.
The other XMU team was composed of four students, i.e., Gao Haochen, He Hao, Li Jingru and Cai Jiangling, all of whom were digital media technology majors enrolled in the Software School of XMU in 2015. Their work “rebirth” was distinguished by its theatrical effect, which was further enhanced by the dubbing for the game characters by the team members themselves. Thereupon, their team won the “Microsoft’s Special Choice Award” (an added award to encourage girls to jump on the bandwagon of game development) as well as a prize of 4000 RMB and an Xbox One console.
Serving on the judging panel in the final were leaders and experts from game-related businesses including Kingsoft Season Game Studio, Giant Network, Tencent Wegame, Microsoft and Media G Cores. All participants in this championship earned precious chances to exchange ideas with these top-tier experts from the gaming industries, even the opportunity to join global game exhibitions.
The digital media technology is a burgeoning cross-disciplinary subject of the Software School of XMU. A digital media technology major is required of the basic knowledge of software, the combination of information technology and media art form, the grasp of the basic theories pertaining to digital media such as computer animation, computer game, and human-computer interaction, etc. Meanwhile, students majoring in this subject also need to be interdisciplinary, engineering talent who are able to apply modern digital technology with proficiency in their artistic creation and design, and who are possessed of both tech savvy and artistic thinking. Efforts started to pay off in recent years with more XMU students in this major raking in honors in varied competitions such as the Intel Software Innovation Contest and the China’s Youth Entrepreneurship Competition, etc.
Original Article From: https://en.xmu.edu.cn/news/list.htm
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