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Nokia Mobile Games University Competition winners announced

Finalists invited to GDC

Nokia Mobile Games University Competition winners announced
Forum Nokia arranged a global competition in which students were invited to design, prototype and showcase their ideas for future mobile games. A total of 44 entries were received, and the two winners have just been announced.

Parsons The New School for Design from the US submitted Weekness, a concept in which friends share their SMS activity, resulting in social interactions that reflect individual communication styles, extending the functionality of text messaging into a game. Weekness was developed for Adobe’s Flash Lite 3.0 platform.

“This competition reveals how the next generation of game designers will help redefine the very essence of gaming by emphasizing the crucial role of social communication,” said David Carroll, assistant professor of Media Design at Parsons The New School for Design.

“It signals a new era of socially intertwined games where the distinction between the producer and player are completely blurred.”

The second winner was from the Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences, with MooLan - a space shuttle pilot manoeuvring game, similar to the classic Moon Lander, which utilises handset accelerometer and proximity sensors as well as the camera.

“We're thrilled to have been picked as a winner,” said Bernhard Aufreiter. “We really wanted to maximise our use of handset features like sensors and camera technology - there are so many exciting innovations that can be applied to mobile games now.

"It has been great to have the opportunity to work with Nokia and be rewarded for our efforts. We're looking forward to being able to network with other like-minded developers at GDC and pick up some real industry insights.”

Both teams will be invited to attend this year’s GDC as Nokia’s guests.

“We were really impressed by the standard of entries we received, especially seeing as the students had to develop these concepts in just a few weeks,” said Dr Mark Ollila, director of technology at Nokia.

“Games were judged on criteria including entertainment value, creativity and usability. This kind of competition really showcases the raw talent of our next-generation of mobile games developers and provides an insight into the potential of our industry.”

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