WITH their creative and well-presented game titled Dream Traveller, Low Y-Loon and Christopher Yah, both 17, from SMK Kota Kemuning in Shah Alam, Selangor, emerged champions in the recent 3D Computer Games Design Competition 2009. The event was organised by Taylor’s College School of Computing.

Their game chronicles events that happen at a fictional place called the city of New Valley, which is under attack by an unknown enemy. Players are summoned to New Valley by the Tree of Wisdom to locate and destroy the enemy.

It was truly a team effort as Y-Loon developed the technical requirements of the game, while Christopher contributed the creative elements.

“We’re very proud and happy to win and we want to thank the Taylor’s staff and judges for all their help and feedback,” said Y-Loon, who aspires to become a software engineer.

Budding architect Christopher added: “Although we were busy with school work and exams, we joined this competition to test our programming and graphic design skills. It was a fun learning experience and the end result was worth all the effort!”

Y-Loon (left), Christopher (right) and their computer teacher Lim Wei Wei receive their prizes from Banu Devi.

The duo also received the Best Mapping Award. They took home two mini notebooks and drawing tablets, as well as a printer which they won for their school.

Finishing in second was Team SMK Seafield from Petaling Jaya, comprising Yeoh Keng Wei and Ling Poh Ping. Their kid-friendly game titled Eternal Spring of Youth revolves around the main character Ogor, who travels to a mysterious dungeon to rescue his friend, Chip. The team members won an iPod Touch 8GB each.

In third place was Team SMK USJ 4 from Subang Jaya, made up of Prashanth Mathew and Prashan Vijayan. Their game titled Luring also won the Best Storyline Award. It focuses on the manipulation of Baylors by Princess Sara and how he has to overcome her by luring a beast to the lava and finding a key. The team won two mobile printers and drawing tablets.

Opened to secondary school students with basic IT knowledge, the competition required participants to produce a short, playable 3D computer game programme to illustrate the theme “Quest”. Each entry had to incorporate at least one playable level, and include written instructions or user guides, and a short description of the game including its unique features and graphics.

“The aim of this competition is to identify, nurture and reward innovation in 3D computer games design among youth,” said Taylor’s College School of Computing programme director Banumathy Devi. “The enthusiasm level and quality of work was high; it looks like we have many game developers and game business entrepreneurs in the making.”

To help participants prepare for the competition, two workshops were organised in June by several of the school’s lecturers. It covered topics such as interactive 3D computer graphics and animation.

Participants were also exposed to the Platinum Arts SandBox tool used in the competition. This provided them with hands-on experience in developing a 3D game using existing 3D models.

They were judged according to creativity and feasibility; relevance and clarity; user interface; overall appearance; and the oral presentation.

Head judge Michael Cheah commented: “This competition is a wonderful platform to identify creative talents among Malaysian youth. It’s certainly encouraging and exciting to see so many teens with the desire and ability to develop their own computer games.”