THE final of this year’s Mobile Bullets Competition, held at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), showcased the skills and expertise of UCLan’s game design students and Lancaster University’s programming students; when two teams competed to see who had produced the best marketable entertainment App for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch handsets.

Trimble, made up of Stuart Allardes and Jack Bulmer, from UCLan, and Chris Winstanley, from Lancaster University, were announced the winning team for their pitch and game ‘Terraslam’. Terraslam is a 24 level retro skill shooter game; based on the concept of marbles it also has unique gravitational forces built into the play. The aim of the game is to hit the planets off the screen in the time and number of shots assigned to that level.

Following the competition, TriBlu, in partnership with Preston-based GlobiGames, have finalised a Lite version of Terraslam which is now available to download, for free, from the Apple iTunes store. 

The Mobile Bullets Competition, now in its fifth year, was supported by Black Bull Studios, Globi Games, Shiny Development, Lancashire County Developments Limited, Preston City Council, UCLan, and Lancaster University. The competition started as a games design project for second year UCLan students, with four winning students joining forces with Lancaster University programming students to develop the two best concepts into fully marketable games.

The teams then went head to head in a dragon’s den style pitch to a panel of industry experts which this year included, Maria Stukoff from Sony Entertainment Europe, Linda Merrills iPhone apps champion and business advisor, Andrew Leeming from Lancashire County Developments Limited and Nick Clarkson Digital & Creative sector advisor at Business Link. The pitches from the teams involved not only demonstrating the playability and mechanics of the games, but also showing their understanding of the market, their target audience and how they will promote their game.

Although TriBlu’s game Terraslam was named the ultimate winner, the red team’s game Quick Fish, in which the player has to navigate a school of fish through deep waters avoiding enemies, was also a big hit with the judging panel. Peter Melling, Director of Black Bull Studios said “The quality of the games was outstanding this year, showing just what Lancashire’s students and graduates are capable of. There were two games presented that with a little work will be ready to take to market”.

County Councillor Michael Welsh, chair of Lancashire County Developments Limited - the County Council’s economic development company, said: "Creative industries - intellectual property, design and software development - are critical to our strategy to develop Lancashire as a centre of excellence for innovation and technologically based business.

"We want to encourage graduates to stay in Lancashire and play a part in the modernising the local economy. We were very pleased to work with Mobile Bullets and other partners in mounting this competition and providing an opportunity to identify and encourage new talent to break through."

Speaking of the experience Triblu team member Stuart Allardes commented, “This has been a great opportunity for us and we have learnt so much; how to work in a team, the limitations of development that a designer would not normally understand and how the design process fully works; we now understand what it is like to work in the industry.”

Jack Bulmer added, “It has been so great to see my concept come to life, to actually see it working and think I did that. I know this experience is going to help me so much in my third year”.

Phil Holifield, from UCLan’s Knowledge Transfer Service highlighted the benefits of the partnership when he said: “This partnership provides a great live educational experience for students from both UCLan and Lancaster University. The biggest benefit to the students is the final game that they have produced themselves to show to future employers, which is a lot more demonstrable of their talent than a portfolio. The Universities also benefit hugely as the commercial output from this project adds kudos to the reputation of the games design and programme courses at the institutions”

The full version of Terraslam is expected to be available before Christmas with a download price of £0.59p. To download Terraslam Lite please visit the iTunes store at via this link http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/terraslam-lite-1-0/id398388943?mt=8