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The winners of the Tranzfuser graduate talent competition have been announced at a ceremony earlier today.
The winners of the competition, which is funded by the Government-backed UK Games fund were Mochi Mode from Cardiff and representing the University of South Wales and Shuttershade Studios from the University of Huddersfield. The two studios beat 21 other teams to each win a £25,000 grant for their projects.
"All of the teams worked hard after securing their place on Tranzfuser 2017," said UK Games Talent and Finance Community Interest Company founder, Paul Durrant. "Each of the 23 teams has put in a huge effort and each has benefitted significantly from real-world learning throughout. The winning teams are the ones that best managed the scope of their projects, had a shared creative objective across the team and better understood the target audience for their particular games."
"The UK games industry is a fantastic success story and we want to see it continue to grow from strength to strength," added Creative Industries minister Matt Hancock. "The Tranzfuser programme is aimed at identifying and supporting the talented young games developers and the original and innovative games they are producing right here in the UK. Last year’s Tranzfuser alumni went on to publish their own game and I wish this year’s winners the same success in turning their creativity into a reality for us all to enjoy."
The competition went through several rounds, starting ten weeks ago when the teams began to make a concept for their projects. The teams then took their game to the EGX festival where over 80,000 people had a chance to play the game and where the competition was judged.
"After graduating, it’s tough to know what steps will help you ‘breakthrough’ into the games industry," said Mochi Mode’s Laura Wells, who created Moo Moo Move, a game about herding cows to safety using simple touch controls. "That was especially true for us with the aspiration to start up our own studio. Tranzfuser has given us guidance at a crucial point of our development. Most importantly, it has allowed us to make a little magic!"
"Winning Tranzfuser has had a life changing effect on both me and the entire Shuttershade Studios team," said Marcus Nichols from the studio, which created VR Party Ware, a VR collection of minigames We’re now able to do our dream jobs which is to have very little sleep but to have a tonne of fun developing our own video games. It’s the most varied job that we’ve all had and we wouldn’t change it for the world.
