Ontario Tech students at the top of their game at Ubisoft Toronto NEXT competition

Ontario Tech University students have once again demonstrated they have the technical, teamwork and entrepreneurial skills to excel in the evolving world of game development.

Five students and graduates from Ontario Tech’s Faculty of Business and Information Technology made it to the final stage of this year’s Ubisoft Toronto NEXT competition. Hosted by game development studio Ubisoft Toronto, the annual event serves as an opportunity for video game development students across Ontario to show off their talents and kickstart their careers in the industry.

Two Ontario Tech students took home first place in their categories:

Technical Art: Jessica Le (Game Development and Interactive Media (GDIM), class of 2021)

• The challenge was to create a game scene set in a futuristic space environment. The scene had to feature a unique spaceship bridge that stood out from the others. Jessica landed the winning spot for creating intuitive and elegant tools artists can use to build their layouts.

Programming: Rob Savaglio (GDIM, class of 2019 and Master of Science (MSc) in Computer Science, class of 2021)

• Participants built a contemporary tower-defence game, and were judged on their level of innovation, technical skills, and quality of engineering. Rob impressed the judges by creating a robust game engine and introducing another layer of complexity by adding a third dimension to his game.

Jessica and Rob received paid summer apprenticeships with Ubisoft Toronto, where they will deepen their knowledge, skills and expertise in various aspects of game development.

The other three finalists from Ontario Tech placed second in their categories:

• 3D Art: Andy Melo (GDIM, class of 2020)
• Gameplay Animation: Michael Chan (GDIM, class of 2017 and MSc in Computer Science, class of 2020)
• Programming: Mathew Kostrzewa (GDIM, class of 2022)

Related links:

• Watch the Ubisoft Toronto NEXT 2021 highlight video shared on Twitter (Rob appears at 0:33, and Jessica at 0:50).
• Watch the Ubisoft Toronto NEXT 2021 awards ceremony (YouTube)
• Read more about the challenge, student experiences and winning projects.

Quote

“Congratulations to our students on their success in this year’s Ubisoft Toronto NEXT competition. Ontario Tech University’s Game Development and Interactive Media students delve into the creation of video games, virtual and augmented reality experiences from the first day of their program. These hands-on opportunities, combined with our students’ hard work and dedication, result in impressive projects such as the ones showcased at this competition. We are incredibly proud of their accomplishments.”
- Dr. Andrew Hogue, Associate Professor and Program Director, Game Development and Interactive Media, Faculty of Business and Information Technology, Ontario Tech University

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