Technology

Posted on March 26, 2018 by staff

This Dead Winter creator comes top in game competition

Technology

A winter woodland fantasy adventure game created by a University of Huddersfield graduate has won one of the UK’s largest competitions for independent PC games.

Rob Potter is an indie-games developer who graduated in Computer Games Programming in 2017.

The 23-year-old’s creation, This Dead Winter, won the PC Indie Pitch competition which took place at the global PC games industry conference, PC Connects London 2018.

The adventure game is centred around a red fox who loses his cub to an evil spirit in a land gripped by an eternal winter.

To be reunited, the fox must take part in puzzles and challenges hidden among the ruins of a lost civilisation and complete the journey through the heart of an ‘otherworldly forest’.

The competition was open to all independent developers working on digital PC games.

A total of 10 developers were chosen from the wealth of entries to compete in the final at PC Connects London 2018 for the chance of winning a marketing campaign worth $3,000 and a unique PC Indie Pitch baseball bat trophy.

Potter, who lives in Linthwaite, was told he had made it through to the final and was challenged with creating a pitch lasting no longer than four minutes and to allow one minute for questions.

This was then repeated to five pairs of judges in a ‘speed-dating’ style competition.

Potter began designing his game during the final year of the BSc degree in Computer Games Design degree.

When he was given the opportunity to take part in the national Tranzfuser challenge sponsored by the UK Games Fund he seized the opportunity to develop the game into a fully working prototype and succeeded.

He then exhibited his game at the major gaming conference EGX in Birmingham and received excellent feedback from the gamers.

Tranzfuser is funded by the UK Games Fund as part of a drive by the government to encourage the UK games industry and stimulate innovative potential from a grass roots level.

Potter will now seek funding for This Dead Winter by raising awareness of the games credibility and will be appearing at as many gaming conferences and exhibitions as possible.

Helping him achieve this is the university’s Enterprise Team in the university’s Duke of York Young Entrepreneur Centre. They offer students and recent graduates who want to start up a business the use of free hot-desk office facilities, on site business support and advice on accessing start-up funds and proof-of-concept grants.

“The northern independent gaming community is extremely robust and I want to make the most of the strong industry links the university has so Huddersfield will be my base,” said Potter.

Potter will also be taking part in the new Tranzfuser Accelerator. This is a unique programme where each runner-up from the 2017 Tranzfuser competition will receive a tailor-made consultancy package to give them the best chance possible of successfully applying to the UK Games Fund.