More than 50 students within the growing digital media industry showcased their creative skills and talent in the second edition of the Gamezing competition, which had a focus on digital games playable on browsers.
Building up on the previous year's success, participation in Gamezing 2011 increased to a total of thirteen games submitted by teams from various educational institutions, with "Super Pibbit" emerging as the overall winner during the Award Ceremony held on Saturday night.
Developed by Minjaware from St Martin's Institute of IT, "Super Pibbit" is a humorous, fast paced action game, starring a small rabbit embarked on a tireless run, with the player having to time the rabbit's jumping to get bonus vegetables and avoid pitfalls.
Nonetheless, all entries got words of praise from the panel of judges, which comprised industry professionals Georgios Yannakakis, IT Professor at the University of Copenhagen; Vince Briffa, Head of Department of Digital Art at the University of Malta; and Christos Iosifidis, Game Designer at Digital Chocolate, Finland.
With a particular mention given to the creativity of the students in producing games with various styles, genres and targeted at different audiences, the judges' comments on the entries were extremely positive and confirmed the potential of the digital gaming industry in Malta as an offshoot of the ICT industry.
Kalvin Morrow, who was special guest speaker at the Award Ceremony, likewise spoke about the potential of this creative industry whilst referring to the opportunities being generated even in Malta. Mr Morrow himself has only recently moved to Malta to lead the game design for TRC Family Entertainment Ltd, after having worked for The Walt Disney Company on the most successful kids' online world, "Club Penguin".
The competition was organised by a multi-disciplinary team from the University of Malta with the support of the Ministry for Finance, Economy and Investment, Malta Enterprise, the Malta Council of
Science and Technology and St Martin's Institute of IT.
Gamezing is one of the initiatives forming part of the strategy aimed at stimulating the growth of the digital gaming production industry in Malta, which also includes new teaching and research initiatives, close collaboration with the business sector, and attraction of foreign investment.
To this end, Malta Enterprise is working in close collaboration with the University and MCST as well as other stakeholders in the industry to facilitate the growth in Malta of the lucrative digital gaming
industry, thus also leading to the generation of more employment opportunities. Amongst others, initiatives are also aimed at ensuring the country has the skilled human resources required by encouraging more students to engage themselves in this sector.