This year, 21 teams consisting of a total of 170 members submitted pitch documents as entries to the contest, based on the theme ‘Mendelian Inheritance: genetics and genomics’, which is supported by the Wellcome Trust. Candidates were encouraged to treat the theme creatively, spanning concepts such as variation, mutation and other characteristics of the human genome. The entries were scrutinised by a panel of judges from Epic Games, the Wellcome Trust, and Stephen Gaffney, CEO of Fireteam.
The judges were looking for game plans that demonstrated an inspirational use of the competition theme, and which were ambitious while staying mindful of the contest deadlines and demands. Artwork with eye-catching visuals were commended.
“We were extremely pleased with the high quality of all the submissions this year, with entries coming from teams across Europe,” commented Mike Gamble, European Territory Manager at Epic Games and a member of the judging panel.
“We were looking for pitches which used the Mendelian Inheritance theme to develop clever and original ideas which would also be realisable in the time available. Teams scored highly when they demonstrated that they were comfortable with the subject matter and could develop their idea into an engaging game.”
Dr Daniel Glaser, Head of Special Projects at the Wellcome Trust, said, “We’re delighted to see such a display of imagination inspired by the theme. We look forward to seeing how those shortlisted evolve their concepts over the course of the competition. We want to inspire a new generation of games developers as part of our wider commitment to using games and gaming culture as a means of engaging people with science.”
The 12 shortlisted candidates will now use Epic’s Unreal Development Kit (UDK), the free edition of Unreal Engine 3 (UE3), to create new PC games demos based on their pitches.
MSUL 2013 – the shortlisted teams
Name | University | Game title |
Dead Shark Triplepunch | Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden | Loch Ness |
DN-ARK | Université Montpellier 3 Paul Valéry, France | DN-ARK |
Team Fat Totem | University of Abertay, Dundee | Fat Totem |
Frobot Studios | Staffordshire University | UGENE |
Legendary Muffin | Anglia Ruskin University | Regen |
Ludorum Studios | Staffordshire University | Psych |
Team Polymorph | Staffordshire University | Polymorph |
Stafford Uni Freshers | Staffordshire University | (untitled) |
Static Games | Bournemouth University | Mendel’s Farm |
Team Catalyst | Northumbria & Newcastle University | Phenotype |
Team Diploid | University of Abertay, Dundee | Team Diploid |
Team Summit | University Of Abertay, Dundee | Beings |
The teams will come to London at the beginning of December to present work-in-progress on their games to the judging panel. On this day, four teams will be selected to go through to the competition’s grand final at the Gadget Show Live exhibition in April 2013.
At the Gadget Show Live finalists will work on their games live on the show floor in front of the MSUL judges and the public visitors to the show. On the final day of the exhibition, the overall winning team will be announced, and awarded with a commercial Unreal Engine 4 licence for PC digital distribution.