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35 |Thursday, April 13, 2017 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Marta Marychuk Reporter mmarychuk@oakvillebeaver.com A rts c e n e "C o n n e c t e d t o y o u r C o m m u n i t y " Sheiidan College students sweep Level Up showcase by Marta Marychuk Oakville Beaver Staff Fourth-year students from Sheridan's Honours Bachelor of Game Design were the big winners at the seventh annual Level Up Student Show case held at the Design Exchange in Toronto on Thursday, April 6. The Scend Interactive team (creators of Twin Switch game) consisted of Stefano Della Croce, Armand Mech, Jake Nissen and Mohammad Qureshi. | submitted photo The students won 10 of the 12 awards avail able in the four categories of Best Overall Game, Technical Innovation, Artistic Achieve m ent and People's Choice Award, where a hrst, second and third prize were up for grabs in each category. Sheridan College swept the entire categories of technical and artistic and won hrst place in all four. The Level Up Student Showcase puts the n ext generation of game developers at the fore front, highlighting Ontario's top post-second ary talent in the held of game design. The competition attracted approximately 8 0 games, submitted by 14 institutions such as: Algonquin College, OCAD University, Ryerson University, University of Toronto UOIT, and York University. Judges from the completion include indus try giants: Ubisoft, AMD, Uken Games and VR Headspace. "This outstanding achievement reflects the core strengths of our program and the depth and breadth of experience of both our faculty and advisory council," Ronni Rosenberg, dean of the faculty of animation, arts and design, said in a media release. "Our students study the historical, cultural, sociological and psychological aspects of com puter games so they know how to engage with an audience. By designing within the frame w ork of an overall narrative structure, they learn to help people develop an afh nity with the characters," Rosenberg added. "Courses in design, m athematics, physics, art, and artih cial intelligence support our em phasis on design, art, computation and tech nology. By managing the production of a game from concept to distribution, our students also gain important business skills like scheduling, budgeting and project m anagem ent," she said. "All of this is made possible by faculty m em bers who are active professionals, with direct ties to industry," added Rosenberg. "Their tech nological savvy, contacts and experience bring both knowledge and partnership opportunities to Sheridan, which give our students a deep foundation for game design careers. "The program beneh ts from the input of a professional advisory council, whose members are drawn from industry and provide input into curriculum to ensure currency with indus try requirements and trends. It's also housed in a faculty that's a world leader in digital media and animation, creating exciting opportunities for collaboration and the fusion of learning and ideas," the release added. Sheridan entered 12 teams in this year's competition, with hve teams (consisting of a combined 2 6 students) winning an award. Sheridan's winning games included: Unspokin, Twin Switch, Disco is Dead!, Valhalla see Students on p. 35 f ilm c a · *THE CIRCLE cinemas 171 Speers Road (at Kerr) Oakville 905-338-6397 m WeArDTheCircle.com www.film .ca facebook.com/filmca @ Film cacinem as THE BOSS BABY (STC) M A R C H 31 SMURFS: THE LOST ViLLAGE THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS (G) (STc) a p r il bon f r e e s c r e e n in g a p r il cop BAD cop (14A) 19 THE c i r c l e (s t c ) a p r il 7 a p r il 14 ( n a t io n a l c a n a d ia n f ilm d a y ) 28