News Kibble

Last week we hosted our first Eindhoven Godot User Group meetup. It was a great success and we had a lot of fun! Ash from Scratchpost Studios showed how they used Godot to get high school students into game development.

We also had demos of student projects using Godot, such as Voidscape and PartyMorph. We had discussions about how, why, and whether to mix C# and GDScript in the same project. Combined with snacks and drinks, it was certainly something we’re going to do again soon!

On January 23, our Game Design & Technology groups showcased their work at the Innovations Insight event in the Fontys ICT InnovationLab.

This year we could leave the spork awards at home, because two nominated projects won the event’s SPARC awards.

Project: HoneyBee from QuantumMonkey Studios won the Most Innovative Student Project SPARC award with their realistic drone simulator for the Ministry of Defense. In addition, the Best Technological Achievement SPARC award went to the team from GGeese Studios for their innovative XR racer’s toolkit.

To enhance the visibility of the work of Game Design and Technology students at Fontys ICT, the Dogfood Studios team, in collaboration with students, has constructed an arcade cabinet. This cabinet serves as a public platform for playing the games created by the students within the department. The arcade is equipped with a variety of input devices (joystick and keyboard), sound, and a top panel display for branding the game or providing an additional perspective/dimension in the game. The process of making the students’ games available on the arcade cabinet has been streamlined: students can upload their games themselves through a digital submission and delivery procedure, followed by a virus scan (by 60 virus scanners), and unlocking in a visually appealing menu structure with an attractive digital cover, visible and playable on the arcade cabinet.

The Dragons unleashed their fiery judgment once again!

In an electrifying showdown on November 15th, brave Game Design and XR students ventured into the Dragons’ lair to showcase their creative visions. The atmosphere crackled with tension as each team stepped forward to face the panel of industry veterans. While some presentations ignited the Dragons’ imagination, others struggled to withstand their scorching scrutiny.

The 2-man project Aeon Chronicle from Tacticat Studios was a clear winner with all Dragons approving the potential of the game. Even though there was still disagreement among the dragons, a standout success story came from GGeese Studios, whose groundbreaking VR racing toolkit earned sparked a lot of interests from the Dragons. Their innovative concept combines physical racing karts with passthrough VR technology, allowing players to design and race on life-sized tracks - a perfect blend of virtual and real-world racing thrills. Our distinguished panel of Dragons - Tim Spaninks, Kay Gruenwoldt, Adinda van Oosten, and Tim van der Grinten - wielded their industry expertise with precision, delivering both praise and constructive criticism that will help shape these emerging talents into tomorrow’s game development leaders.

To prepare for the upcoming Fall 2024 Dogfood Studios season, the team visited GamesCom. We ended the day at our, now ritualised, Scnhnitzeleria near the Köln Messe.

Here we: Admired the 10-hour Monster Hunter Wilds queue. Collected ourselves in the Spectators Cantina behind the Star Wars Outlaws booth. And picked up a few new contacts along the way.

Next year, we’ll try for our own AR pop-it-up-yourself booth at random locations within the halls or we finally have games to show for ourselves.

A select group of ambitious students who will start their Advanced Game Design & Techology semester after the summer, already flocked to our first pre-season networking event. Next to offering interesting projects with industry partners, ambitious students can form their own indie game company.

After a round of introductions and three game design related speed-date exercises, they can start preparing their ideas in the summer so they can blow us away with their business pitch at the start of the semester.

On June 27, our Game Design & Technology groups showcased their work at the Innovations Insight event in the Fontys ICT InnovationLab. This edition we upped our game by turning our little corner of the Fontys ICT InnovationLab at Strijp TQ into a vertiable gaming zone, with quoter-posters, flashy screens and of course a flurry of game showcases with tasty snacks.

We also awarded our first Dogfood Studios Spork awards to the Warehouse Surfers group and the Crusadeon game!

James Lockett, lead developer for Planet Zoo, flew in from across The Channel to share insights about his work and other exciting projects at Frontier UK. The stage was packed today to hear James describe how he rolled into the industry working on lesser known rough gems and bigger titles such as Planet Coaster and Planet Zoo. He gave our students a lot of tips, tricks, and cheats on how to get started and stuck around for an insightful Q&A session.

While students were taking a breath from the Dragons’ Den, preparing for their Deep Dive project, and finishing their mid-term portfolios, the teachers team worked on their own project. True to our eat your own dog food motto, we dove into a one week game jam to finally get some hands-on experience with that other game engine.

Seraphic Betrayal (or Heaven’s Descent, or Hellish Corporate Chaos) is a collection of 2 interconnected games. In one game, players control Michael, a fallen angel, as he fights his way from hell back to heaven, battling corrupted angels and demons. In the other game, players assume the role of the Overseer, responsible for placing enemies strategically and managing celestial entities behind the scenes. The game features a light-hearted and humorous aesthetic, blending intense bullet hell gameplay with strategic management elements.

The Dragons had another roast!

On April 19th, the Advanced Game Design and XR students faced the ultimate challenge of defending their creations against the formidable Dragons. Some creations barely survived, while others were completely devoured. Pitching a game turns out to be something quite different from developing one. Scratchpost Studios received a clear yay from all the Dragons for their narrative game, Shattered Echoes! The Dragons Luuk Waarbroek, Chris Hendriks, Miguel Rebocho de Oliveira, and Bertine van Hövell tot Westerflier brought their expertise to the table, providing insightful opinions and constructive feedback on the students’ games.