Student finalists at Melbourne International Games Week

Organised by ACMI, Melbourne International Games Week (MIGW) is Asia Pacific’s largest celebration of digital games, bringing together gaming culture, industry heavyweights and local and international influencers.

As part of MIGW, the Victorian Government and Department of Education put on a Games Education Symposium: Career and Frontiers. The symposium aims to build stronger connections and pathways between secondary and tertiary students, educators, and the local industry and runs on the 3rd and 4th of October 2024. Day 2 of the symposium includes a Tertiary Hackathon where students develop solutions to real-world challenges with the theme being ‘How Can Games Change the World for Good’?

Being a university dedicated to giving our students industry and invaluable working experiences, I jumped at the opportunity to give Torrens University Gaming students the chance to take part.

Torrens University Gaming students at the Education Symposium Hackathon

The students I engage with are mostly NSW and Queensland-based. However, I put feelers out for interested Victoria-based students, and suddenly, I had five keen students! Groups were created immediately and were directed towards how to develop the game concept. Two teams finalised amazing game concept pitches within a matter of three weeks, with one game pitch, Stay aFloat, selected as a finalist.

Stay aFloat: Tackling pollution through gaming

Students Mackenzie Moir and Caleb Moir took the initiative to pitch their game concept at ACMI during the Careers and Frontiers Symposium as the perfect platform for the first pitch of their Game Design and Development course at Torrens University Australia.

Their brainchild, Stay aFloat, tackles the global issue of pollution through gaming.

About Mackenzie and Caleb’s hackathon experience

I asked Mackenzie and Caleb about their experience from ideation, to prototyping and presenting Stay aFloat at the Education Symposium: Career and Frontiers hackathon.

“What started off as a simple game design principles subject assignment to put what we learned into practice, turned into weeks of hard work, challenge and fun,” said the Stay aFloat team.

“After building and designing our game, we submitted our pitch and waited patiently in suspense for a response, with no real expectation we would make it through,” says the Stay aFloat team.

“A wonderful surprise it was when we found out we were selected as one of six short-listed finalists, asked to present our game at the ACMI Theater Cinema 1 as part of the careers and frontiers event,” they add.

“We spent the next week working day and night making sure our pitch was as best as it was going to be, gathering all our resources and assets and perfecting our presentation so that for the day we would be ready.”

Presenting and networking with the gaming industry

On pitch day, our students watched several panels and other professional presenters talk, all with useful advice and information for their futures. They took notes and spoke with industry professionals from all over Australia, taking the opportunity to expand their network.

“When it came time for the teams to present, we were both very nervous about presenting our game to everyone and the esteemed judges. Luckily for us, we were second last to present our game, so we had some time to settle our nerves and to see what other teams had made,” says the Stay aFloat team.

The panel judges were Seb Chan, CEO of ACMI; Katie Roots, marketing manager of Hipster Whale; and George Osborn, founder of Half-Space Consulting (UK). This experience of presenting in front of industry experts was daunting yet thrilling for the students.

“Getting up on the stage with bright lights and many people staring at us we started to present our game was nerve-wracking…” says the team. But from the very start we had people engaged and interested in our idea, laughing with us at funny parts of the game, sad when we spoke about unhappy parts of the story, and all up invested in what we had offered up as our presentation. The moment was truly invigorating, getting to make people feel and connect with what we had made.”

“We spoke with more people hearing many compliments and excitement about our game which included production managers, animators, Unreal Engine Epic games team members, as well as entrepreneurs who own gaming studios,” adds the Stay aFloat team.

A winning experience for the students

While Stay aFloat wasn’t selected as the winner, the overall experience was a great win for our Gaming students. Students learnt how to pitch to the industry, demonstrated the quality of their work and expertise as well as expanded their professional networks with heavyweights in the gaming industry.

“While it was disappointing not to win, we were still optimistic about the entire exposure and experience we have had and so many potential ways of moving forward with this game concept,” says the team. “We were delighted to have been able to participate as a finalist for the Careers and Frontiers Hackathon.”

To hear when the team launch Stay aFloat, follow our social channels.