A video game built by students on placement at Staffordshire University has scooped a major industry award.
MechHead and MentalBlock were developed through the award-winning 1UP placement scheme this summer and both were shortlisted in the TIGA Games Industry Awards alongside submissions from major UK games studios.
The great and the good of the games sector were celebrated at the TIGA Games Industry Awards 2023 at the iconic Troxy London which saw Staffordshire University shortlisted in six categories.
In the first award of the evening, MechHead won best Arcade Game and was judged as being the best creative, innovative and engaging arcade game with excellent sound and visual design.
Course director for Games Design David James said: "MechHead started as a passion project which was then used to great success as a games design teaching framework. Over the Summer, our brilliant students and staff in the 1Up team went above and beyond in developing MechHead further. I'm absolutely overjoyed and incredibly proud of everyone's hard work in obtaining this award.
Course director Stuart Butler added: “Our foundation year students will be using that game framework as the base for their module study in January. I think it's a brilliant thing that they will now get to do their assessments based on an award-winning game.”
Commenting on the win, lecturer Dan Bond said: “Absolutely thrilled to see MechHead win. It was a huge joy to lead and work alongside such a talented bunch of students on the project over the summer! Congrats to the incredible team and the staff who supported 1UP.”
Masters student Callum Roberts said: “Being art lead has been an invaluable experience for me and I look forward to getting stuck in with future Staffordshire University projects.”
Games Art student Jennifer Martin said: ”I’m so insanely happy that we won TIGA Best Arcade Game Award for MechHead. It was such an amazing and rewarding experience with the 1UP scheme and it’s so amazing that we have won a TIGA award.”
Professor Chris Headleand, Head of Computer Games Development, said: “This win sends a strong message to the sector that ‘Staffordshire University builds games’ and has been doing so successfully for 20 years. It also demonstrates the effectiveness of the 1UP placement scheme which won Best Education Initiative at last year’s event. ”
Dr Richard Wilson OBE said: “Many congratulations to all the winners of the TIGA Games Indsutry Awards 2023. As ever, it was wonderful to celebrate the creativity and commitment to excellence of the games studios, universities and associated companies who make the UK a great place to make games.
The 1UP scheme employs 30 students over summer to work in our in-house studio, building games under the supervision of games lecturers.