UOIT students shine at the Level Up Student Games Showcase in Toronto

After working long hours in the lab throughout the academic year on innovative creations, Game Development students are always keen to show off their work to the rest of the world.

In what has become a traditional year-end opportunity for the Game Development and Entrepreneurship (GDE) program at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), a huge contingent of talented students represented the university at the 2016 Level Up Student Games Showcase, held at the Design Exchange Centre in downtown Toronto.

Level Up is billed as the first event of its kind in the country that showcases the most talented students in game design, animation and computer science programs. Students from universities and colleges across Ontario take part.

Level Up is synonymous with new creative talent, and provides a vital opportunity for students to make their mark in the dynamic world of game development.

More than a dozen teams from UOIT’s Faculty of Business and Information Technology demonstrated their creations on April 6, and the judges were impressed. The UOIT team Ominous Games took the Innovation award (presented by AMD), while another student, Difei Wang took second place.

Ominous Games team (all in second year of GDE program):

• Josh Bellyk
• Rylan Koroluk
• Owen Meir
• Samantha Stahlke

Kris Abel from the SiriusXM Satellite radio program What She Said also interviewed team member Samantha Stahlke about her love for and experience in video game design. What She Said (Channel 167) airs in Canada and the United States.

• Learn more about UOIT’s Game Development and Entrepreneurship program

Quote:

“We are proud of our students, who continue to prove they are among the most creative and innovative Game Development students in Ontario. The UOIT Game Development and Entrepreneurship program provides students with a wide range of game design and development expertise. They are immersed in the process right from day one, and they deliver video games within a team setting beginning in their first year of study.
-Bill Kapralos, PhD, Associate Professor, UOIT Faculty of Business and Information Technology