MSc in Digital Games at IndieCade

The Institute of Digital Games - University of Malta will be at IndieCade Horizons this weekend! Horizons is new, online, international event to showcase game students and schools, and connect them with tool creators, recruiters, one another, and the broader public. Presented by IndieCade in collaboration with Higher Education Video Game Alliance

Dr Daniel Vella's Panel is scheduled 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM EST (16:00- 17:00 Malta Time) on Saturday 12th June on the IndieCade Twitch channel.

Our Stream is scheduled for 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM EST (15:00-16:00 Malta Time) on Sunday 13th June on the IndieCade Twitch channel.

Candid Coffee with Game Design Universities

After an introduction from Prof. Lindsay Grace, a familiar face for the IDG, Dr Daniel Vella will be joined on a panel with Faculty from Abertay University, Miami University (OH), Marist College, George Mason University, and Kent State University to have an informal and candid chat about the programmes. We expect to head much about the wonderful creations made by students and faculties at these Universities (including of course our very own University of Malta).

Collaborative AI Demo

IDG Alumnus Konstantinos Sfikas will be streaming a demo of the tool he developed as part of his research into AI: a collaborative AI that can successful play Pandemic!

He developed an AI agent that can play and beat the game by controlling all of the players and forming group-strategies. The purpose of developing this agent was to analyse the game’s complexity, from a computational perspective, as well as to examine the possibility of automatically generating variations of Pandemic or other, equally complex, games in the future.

MSc in Digital Games - Game Development

He will also be streaming his own team's game J92 and Closing Time made by another student team. Both were made as part of the requirements for the Game Development unit that forms part of the M.Sc. in Digital Games.

J92

J92 was developed by a group of students, in the context of the “Game development” course (MSc in Digital Games, Institute of Digital Games, University of Malta).

It is a 3D platform game which combines puzzle and action elements with some novel mechanics that relate to shifting the point of view from side-ways to top-down and vice versa. The game’s setting is rather abstract with dark, but humorous, futuristic elements.

Team Credits:

Harris Apartoglou: Level design
Andrea Falzon Garret: Game design, script writing, music / audio
Konstantinos Sfikas: Programming
Jean Paul Vella: 3D modelling, graphics

Closing Time

Closing Time was developed by a team of students during the Game Development course, in the scope of the MSc in Digital Games at the University of Malta.

Lovecraft meets M.C. Escher in this first-person psychological horror game where you explore a nightmarish gallery. The longer you linger, the deeper you descend into the uncanny valley, until the laws of physics finally betray you.

Team Credits:

Alexander Amato-Gauci - game design, programming, additional animation
Lara Caruana Montaldo - game design, programming, audio, animation
Aphrodite Theodora Andreou - game design, 2D art, 3D sculpting, additional audio
Eva Škerlj Prosen - team lead, game design, 2D art, 3D modelling, audio, animation, UI