Anyone who has anything to say about students being lazy, time wasting layabouts should take a long hard look at what the promise of a career in games development can do.

At the Great Canadian Appathon² - organised by XMG studios in partnership with The National Post-  students were given 48 hours to produce killer apps.

In total, more than 125 teams of four joined the hackathon, producing a commendable 85 games in the allotted time.

Giz a job

"I visited 7 HUBS over the weekend and was impressed with the creativity and energy of the teams," said XMG CEO Ray Sharma.

"The first Great Canadian Appathon delivered games way ahead of our expectations and I am eager to put all 85 GCA2 games to the test and help the top three teams polish their games for release in an app store."

There's $25,000 in prize money up for grabs for the eventual winners of the competition, with results due to be announced on November 2.

The winners will also receive Unity Pro 3.x licenses and job interviews at Sharma's outift, XMG Studio.

Time management

In a guest post on PocketGamer.biz Sharma highlighted the importance of these events when exposing students to the cut and thrust world of app development.

"To me, the Appathon illustrates how totally wide open the mobile gaming industry is," he said.

"A good mobile game with a simple concept can be brought to market quickly and generate a great return on investment.

"The biggest challenge to creating a game is time management, and the best teams in the Appathon knew when to start cutting features in order to meet the time lines."

[source: GamesIndustry.biz]