NUA students win UKIE #raisethegamejam

A team of students from across BA (Hons) Games Art and Design and BA (Hons) Animation have won UKIE‘s annual #raisethegamejam.  UKIE’s #raisethegamejam took place across two days in November and tasked student game jammers with creating compelling games to raise awareness of diversity and inclusivity in the games industry. 

300 students participated across 70 teams from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Team Mischievous from Norwich University of the Arts is made up of BA (Hons) Games Art and Design students Charlotte Beale, Charlie Clark, Conor Cliffe, Jordan Eady and Ben Tyreman, and BA (Hons) Animation student Beth Murcott. They won first place in this year’s event. 

Their game Each Our Own is about working together, not despite people’s differences but by fully acknowledging and accepting everyone’s individuality. Each character in the game has their own set of unique abilities which are utilised in collaboration with the other characters in order to help them all traverse the environment and find their way home safely; the team wanted to show that these unique features can actually be used to help others and make people stand out. 

Within the team, each member had their own area of expertise but pitched in to help. Charlotte Beale comments, “The time scale was a huge challenge, so when difficulties arose we had to really pull together to fix them…we could not be happier with what we produced in such a short amount of time. Everyone pulled their weight, switching up our roles and adapting well.”