On Friday 20 March 2009 80 budding video game design and development students from all over the UK took part in X48 two-day intensive development session dedicated to gaming.
Using Microsoft's XNA Game Studio 3.0, X48 offered the student teams an unprecedented opportunity to be mentored by and have their work reviewed by computer giant Microsoft and UK broadcaster Channel 4 key sponsors of the event produced by Pixel-Lab.
The event was themed to challenge the students to develop games that look beyond the traditional puzzle or first person shooter in a bid to create new conversations around gaming and attract the attention of new audiences.
Students from the School of Computing and Engineering's BSc Computer Games Programming and BA Computer Games Design courses walked away with three of the six awards, including the first prize!
Damian de Luca, subject Area Leader for digital Media, said:
This is the sort of event that really benefits our students. They get the chance to showcase their work on a national stage and show major games companies what they can do. We're really proud of their success.
The winning team get passes for Microsoft's Develop Conference (including their travel and accommodation) and a Flip Mino each.