The Entertainment Software Association of Canada’s (ESAC) fourth annual Student Video Game Competition drew in a record number of submissions for 2018. Competing against over 20 schools from across Canada, this year’s title was awarded to students from the University of Quebec Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT) Centre in Montreal for their game, Minors, a cooperative game touching upon the reality of child labour in the mining industry. Minors was originally designed for Ubisoft Montreal’s 2018 Game Lab Competition, whose theme for 2018 was “Change the World”. The game was also the recipient of “Best Prototype” and “Best User Experience” at the Montreal competition.
The ESAC Student Video Game Competition is a national contest and is designed to encourage game development skills that are crucial to the future of the domestic video game industry. Each year the winner travels to Los Angeles and showcases their game to industry and fans at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). A group of expert judges from Xbox Canada, Relic Entertainment, Other Ocean Interactive and Solutions2Go Inc. scored each participant based on originality, artistic expression, and technical proficiency.
The winning team consisted of nine students, including William Homs, Delyan Farashev, Eva-Léa Longue Ngambi, Felix Liberali, Lydiane Beaulne-Bélisle, Nicolas Crevier, Alex Battista, Sijia Mao and Léandre Monette. The UQAT students brought young Canadian talent to the forefront at E3 2018 by sharing their game on the showcase floor and notably surpassing 14K viewers on the live video streaming app Periscope. During the three day event, the students were able to benefit from valuable networking opportunities with their peers and with some of the largest video game companies in the world.
Former winners of the competition include Vancouver Film School (2015), Sheridan College (2016), and Polytechnique Montréal/Centre NAD (2017). For information about the ESAC Student Video Game Competition, please visit: http://theesa.ca/resources/student-video-game-competition/
For more information about ESAC, contact Jayson Hilchie at jhilchie@theesa.ca
