IT Carlow Students Sweep the Boards at Games Fleadh

GAME ON! Five teams from Institute of Technology Carlow swept the boards at the recent Games Fleadh hosted at LIT, scooping awards for Best Game, Best Multiplayer Game, Best Artificial Intelligence and Best Gameplay.

Games Fleadh is considered the ‘Oscars’ of game design and programming and the five teams from Institute of Technology Carlow outdid themselves, with all five awarded for their entries, including taking the title of Robocode Artificial Intelligence Programming Champions after competing against University of Limerick’s team in the final.

Carlow's team syndicate also won Best Artificial Intelligence by creating an autonomous bot which automatically played their game levels assisting them in designing and testing numerous gameplay environments.

The judges from EA Electronic Arts also selected game title Cyber Punch as the Best Game that was built using the Carlow team’s custom-developed game engine.

The design and programming standard of the titles produced was described as so extraordinary that teams also won awards for Best Gameplay with the unusually named “Unplayable” winning the best multiplayer award. Best Gameplay was also awarded to ‘Warp Break’ puzzle platformer creators for their immersive and engaging level designs.

Head of the Dept. of Computing at Institute of Technology Carlow, Nigel congratulated the Institute’s award-winning teams, commenting “The technology sector in one of the most important business sectors in Ireland. Both our indigenous and Foreign Direct Investment FDI industries require a talent pool who are the best of the best. I’m delighted that IT Carlow is at the forefront in the training and development of technology undergraduates and postgraduates within this significant sector which contributes €1 trillion to EU GDP."

The award-winning games will be on display during Institute of Technology Carlow’s Industry showcase which takes place on 11^th April on the Carlow campus which employers are welcome to attend and meet final year students exhibiting their portfolio projects.