On Tuesday, June 25, at the Institute of Information Technology of the Lodz University of Technology, the 5^th Edition of the Team Game Development Competition took place. This year, 11 six-person teams participated in the Competition. The students had 15 weeks to complete the games. In this short period of time, designs, storylines, sketches, 3D models, textures, animations, user interfaces, game engines and gameplays were created. The Jury was composed of:

Artur Ganszyniec (Ars Thanea Games), 
Arkadiusz Antonik (CD Projekt RED), 
Maciej Miąsik (one2tribe), 
Michał Tatka, Łukasz Majchrzak (Teyon Software & Entertainment), 
Maciej Zasada(UNIT9), 
Mateusz Janczewski(Vivid Games), 
Leszek Lisowski (Wastelands Interactive), 
Paweł Miechowski, Grzegorz Miechowski (11bit studios) and 
Sebastian Białek (Lodz City Office), 
Katarzyna Prajzner (University of Lodz), 
Jarosław Andrzejczak, Radosław Bednarski, Dominik Szajerman, Rafał Szrajber, Adam Wojciechowski (Lodz University of Technology) 
awarded the first place and four distinction awards.

The winner of the contest was "Riselands" by the Gamedivers team made up of: Maciej Czarnecki, Marcin Gołubienko, Damian Hofman, Łukasz Kosma, Hubert Ogrodowczyk and Tomasz Ślawski. "Riselands" is a real-time strategy game set in the world of flying islands. The player gets control over his own land and settlers living in it. The main element of the game is the exploration of the dynamically changing environment and annexing new, resource-rich lands to the island.

A special distinction award for creativity and technology was given to the Cynobrowy team for the game "Shelter City". Team members: Sebastian Deredas, Magdalena Rawicka, Adam Dutkiewicz, Aleksander Królasik, Krzysztof Szafrański and Jakub Witczak. "Shelter City" is an action-adventure game set in virtual reality. The player is equipped with skills such as changing the gravity or the world around him. The hero, after discovering the government's evil plot, decides to prevent the enslavement of humanity by the leaders of the virtual world.

The distinction prize for gameplay was won by the game "Doomsowers" and the team Kiwikado composed of: Kuba Bentyn, Paulina Markiewicz, Sławomir Opałka, Paweł Szkudlarek, Michał Warycha and Daniel Ziętala. In "Doomsowers", we take on the role of Edgar - a merciless barbarian and a member of the ancient Brotherhood of Doom Sowers. Together with our faithful companion, Glurpan, we set out on a mission to destroy another, seemingly weak world. However, there are many challenging obstacles waiting for us, which we overcome using the brute force and cunning of our protagonist - the enemies fall under the hail of our blows and their blood runs red.

The ZenTeam team received a distinction prize for communication with the player for their game "Zen Game". The game was created by: Dawid Cichy, Tomasz Gałaj, Bartłomiej Karalus, Michał Nowak, Emilia Szymańska and Damian Wojtas. "Zen Game" is a three-dimensional stealth game embedded in sci-fi realities. Once upon a time, the Pioneer 10 satellite with a board describing the human race breaks down on the planet of Ze, inhabited by intelligent technology. But there is something else on board as well. The player helps the Zen3C agent investigate the find and unravel the mystery that it entails.

The 12345 Gaming team was awarded for the reliability of their Arcann Demon Story. The team was composed of: Michał Andrzejczak, Krzysztof Drewnowicz, Adam Gierach, Katarzyna Pawlak, Jędrzej Piaskowski and Daniel Ryszewski. The game is an epic tale about the fate of a young man who, wanting to gain immense power, sets out to chase after a demon. Battling evil forces and learning new, deadly magical skills, he gets closer to the discovery of a mystery that will forever change his life.

The project, the storyline, the software and the production ? they are all the original work of the students. Whose design was the best? This was evaluated by specialists from the industry.

On Tuesday, July 1, 2014, the 6^th Edition of the Team Game Development Competition took place at the Institute of Information Technology at the Lodz University of Technology. This year, 11 groups composed of 6- or 7-person teams participated in the Competition. Students had 15 weeks to complete the games. During that time, there were designs, storylines, sketches, 3D models, textures, animations, user interface, game engine and gameplay.

In the current edition of the competition, the jury consisted of 13 companies: Ars Thanea Games, CD Projekt RED, Goddylabs, Incuvo, one2tribe, Plastic, Techland, Teyon Software & Entertainment, UNIT9, Vescom, Vivid Games, Wastelands Interactive, 11bit studios and employees of the IT Institute of the Lodz University of Technology, the University of Lodz and the Academy of Fine Arts. One main prize and four distinctions were awarded.

The winner was the game "Mimus Dei" created by the Tall Whale team composed of Rząsa Witold, Ciążyński Paweł, Janeczek Mateusz, Jędrzejczak Dariusz, Kubiak Krzysztof, Majewski Wojciech, Rriska Panajoti. "Mimus Dei" is an action adventure game with platform elements, in which the player takes on the role of a puppeteer in charge of the hero-puppet named Nin who fights with the evil Demon. The battle takes place in the world of the ancient Sumerian myth about Inanna?s descent into the underworld. At stake of the confrontation is the soul of a kidnapped puppeteer, who will be released only once the puppeteer has rescue the goddess Inana with the help of Nin. This, of course, is something that the Demon - who controls the main villain, the queen of the underworld, Ereshkigal - does want to allow.

Tall Whale - Mimus Dei

The distinction award for the substantive value was given to the team DonKeys, for the game "Spectrum" made by a team composed of: Bielak Adrianna, Głąbicki Mateusz, Jach Sonia, Kosiński Michał, Otto Ewelina, Owczarczyk Michał. "Spectrum" is an adventure and logical FPP game that takes the player to the industrial times of the Polish city of Lodz in 1900, where he directs a hero trapped in an old camera and lost in the unknown reality. It is through his eyes that we will explore the intrigues and resolve the riddles, to finally bring the protagonist back to his times.

DonKeys - Spectrum

The BN (Bez Nazwy) team was awarded for engineering and atmosphere of the game ?STORM?. Team members: Barczyński Łukasz, Bruchajzer Ewa, Królak Mateusz, Pawlak Damian, Rogala Piotr, Wyroda Tomasz, Zdunek Damian. It is an adventure game telling the story of a kidnapped boy subjected to a series of bizarre experiments. He gains the ability to control weather phenomena (like one of the X-Man heroines), thanks to which he overcomes a long way home, pursued by sinister robots. The player helps the boy reach home using his amazing abilities.

 
Grupa BN - STORM

Another distinction award for the originality and solutions adopted in the game was received by The Buggers for the game "Ants in Pants?. Team members: Daszuta Marcin, Jóźwiak Damian, Kłysiński Mariusz, Płusk Milosz, Rynkiewicz Filip, Rzepecki Piotr and Świerczyński Radosław. "Ants in pants" is an RTS game, in which the player takes on a commanding swarm of ants who must safely guide their subordinates through the forest in order to secure their existence in the world. The task is difficult because various dangers await on the way, ranging from natural obstacles and predators to an arsonist chasing us with the magnifying glass.

 
The Buggers - Ants in pants

Łukasz, Jankowski Tobiasz, Kopertowski Dawid, Łachacz Filip, Majczyk Adam, Marszał Piotr. ?House of War? is a simplified flight simulator for toy warplanes. The player takes on the role of a model pilot from the Cold War Collection. The battlefield is the modeler's and collector's house filled with everyday objects. Wing in wing with its squadron, the player will have to resist the ruthless Modern Collection.

 
Try Catch - House of War

This year's edition of the Competition gathered the largest number of participants so far, as well as companies from the computer games industry, who raised the rank of our contest with their presence and participation in the jury . We hope that the growing interest of students and the ever-stronger cooperation with specialists in the computer games industry will contribute to the expansion of next year's editions by new participants and new companies.

On Tuesday, June 30, 2015, in the auditorium and conference hall of the Lodz University of Technology, the 7^th final of the Team Game Development Competition was organized by the IT Institution of the Faculty of Technical Physics, Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. Games designed by students were evaluated by representatives of leading Polish PC game production companies and employees of academic centers who run majors and specializations related to computer games.

This year, the competition was for the first time a nationwide one. Two 6-person teams competed in two categories: 8 teams in Game Development (consisting in creating a game from scratch), and 10 teams in Game Design (in which teams used the ready-made game engine - Unity3D). The teams were represented by the following academic centers: University of Silesia and its Faculty of Information Technology and Materials Science, PWSZ in Skierniewice, the Faculty of Natural and Technical Sciences, Lodz University of Technology and its Faculty of Technical Physics, Computer Science and Applied Mathematics.

Students had 15 weeks to complete their games. During that time, ready-made demos of games were developed, which included: plot, sketches, 3D models, textures, animations, user interface, game engine and gameplay.

The competition already enjoyed a certain recognition in Poland, which once again is strongly emphasized by the support from nearly all Polish companies from the computer games industry who make up the jury of the competition. The main technology partner was Microsoft, and the strategic sponsors of the competition were: ATGames, Techland, Teyon, The Farm 51, Vivid Games, with other sponsors being: 11 bit studios, CD Projekt RED, Vescom, Westland Interactive and SUPERHOT. In addition, the jury was was made up of the representatives of the following companies: Incuvo, Plastic, Efektpol, Spidor, UNIT9 and the University of Silesia, PWSZ in Skierniewice, the Institute of Information Technology of the Lodz University of Technology, the University of Lodz and the Academy of Fine Arts.

The competition was under the patronage of the Rector of the Lodz University of Technology, Prof. Stanisław Bielecki, the Preseident of the City of Łódź, Mrs. Hanna Zdanowska, the Marshal of the Lodz Province, Mr. Witold Stępnia and Łódzki Klaster GameDev.

Three prizes (first place and two distinctions) were awarded in each of the two competition categories.

The first place in the Game Development category went to "The Hunt" and the 50 shaders of gray team composed of: Łukasz Nizik, Łukasz Spierewka, Konrad Piechota, Marta Stelmaszewska and Rafał Woźniak.

"The Hunt" is a FPS computer game. The player takes on the character of a lonely bounty hunter who traverses the planet Voluntis, an abandoned human metropolis. His goal is to hunt the mechanical titans called the Apostles. At the end of the road, he must face the most powerful opponent.

"The Hunt" - 50 shaders of gray

A distinction award for creativeness was given to the Raisin? team for their game "Cyber20". Team members: Barłomiej Dobrowolski, Jakub Dziedzic, Patrycja Grad, Kamil Lorenc, Marcin Stańczak and Jan Wojciechowski. The game is held in an electrifying, cyberpunk tone, presented in an isometric view. The player takes on the hacker Samantha, and with the help of the rebellious AI named Theo, hacks around using the proprietary command language, restoring destroyed generators, bypassing and destroying the defense systems of the corporation that privatizes oxygen. In doing so, the talented female programmer wants to take revenge on a corporation that contributed to the disappearance of her father. A bond is formed between Samantha and Theo, which can turn out to be lethal.

"Cyber20" - Raisin'

A distinction award for gameplay went to the group Szesciu Muszkieterow for their game ?Za Sterem?. Team members: Roman Chomik, Jakub Dziworski, Emil Magnuski, Michał Niedomagała, Igor Siciński.

?Za Sterem? is a racing game with action elements, taking place on the sea in-between islands. The player controls a pirate ship and battles his enemies. He may also try and get rid of the competition or reduce their chances of reaching the goal. The most terrible of this treacherous archipelago?s island is the Capital of the Pirates, where even the smallest piece of information about a treasure is worth gold and quickly spreads between pirates, leading to ship races for treasures and battles with cargo ships. You have to decide what tactics to take and how to upgrade your ship in order to always be the first to reach the treasure or be the only one left in the waters. Among the islands of the archipelago, navigation and shipping skills can?t be done without, while winds and waves do not always help your circumstances. Other crews are merciless and will not hesitate to use all kinds of weapons against us, but we aren?t indifferent to their presence either?

 "Za Sterem" - Sześciu Muszkieterów

All the teams represented the IT Institute of the Lodz University of Technology.

In the Game Design competition category, the jury picked one winner and awarded two distinction awards.

The prime spot went to the Ship Crew group for the game "Ship in Five". The group was composed of: Bartłomiej Dobrowolski, Katarzyna Marchwacka, Łukasz Nizik, Konrad Piechota, Łukasz Spierewka, and Anna Walasek.

?Ship In Five? is a 3D game with an isometric camera view, in which two players are trying to deliver a mysterious cargo to the planet Lamaria, at the same time ensuring they get there in one piece. During the game, various problems arise on the ship, such as bugs to be repaired before they burn, maneuvering during the asteroid raid. As the game moves on, it becomes more difficult. The closer to the goal you are, the more desperate are the cosmic pirates who will force the players to share their responsibilities to increase efficiency and cooperation.

"Ship in Five"  - Ship Crew

The distinction award for game engineering was received by the EXEcutoners group consisting of: Krzysztof Fudro, Adam Kowal, Mateusz Mowel, Artur Nowicki, Daria Rytelewska, Magdalena Tatarczany, representing the University of Silesia and its Faculty of Information Technology and Materials Science, for the game "Kingdom Beyond the Clouds"

"Kingdom Beyond the Clouds" is a game belonging to the genre hack n 'slash, whose main goal is to discover an extended world full of dangers, battling enemies attacking us and learning about beautiful elements of the surroundings inspired by traditional Japanese culture. The protagonist of the game is Amatea - a brave queen, determined to regain the throne taken away from her by her evil twin sister, currently wreaking havoc in the Kingdom Beyond the Clouds. She is assisted in the mission by her companion who may be optionally directed by another player.

"Kingdom Beyond the Cloud" - EXEcutoners

The team Stowarzyszenie Elokwentnych Troglodytów  was awarded for the creativity of their idea. The team presented the game "Rewind? and its members were: Roman Chomik, Jakub Dziworski, Jonathan Gostyński, Mateusz Lewandowski, Kacper Madejak, and Filip Wiechowski.

"Rewind? is a game that combines the features of a stealth and logic game with a third-person perspective. The protagonist becomes the owner of a personal time vehicle. During the time travel, the player stays in place and his past version recreates previously performed actions, which allows an effective existence simultaneously in several places.

"Rewind" - Stowarzyszenie Elokwentnych Troglodytów

We know the winners of the 8th National Team Game Development Competition! This year, the course of the Competition was even more interesting than in previous editions.

On July 1, 2016, the 8th Edition of the National Team Game Development Competition took place in the Art Incubator of the Art Factory in Łódź, Poland. The event organized by the IT Institute of the FTIMS Faculty of the Lodz University of Technology is the largest and the most serious academic undertaking of this kind in Poland. It is a nationwide academic-business forum that comprehensively and systematically promotes and supports the cooperation of universities and companies from the computer games industry. In addition to educating qualified employees for global PC games tycoons, in which the FTIMS Faculty of the Lodz University of Technology has 13 years of experience, the Competition and the accompanying Conference on Game Innovations helps boost cooperation in the field of science and research projects between universities, companies and cultural organizations.

The academic slash business conference organized by the Lodz University of Technology and the University of Lodz revolved around the GameInn sectoral program announced this year by the Polish National Center for Research and Development. The projects were presented by 8 companies (including: NCBiR, Techland, Platige Image, CDProjektRed, Dotconnect, 11bit studios, Unit9 and Techmo) and 10 universities from all over Poland (Lodz University of Technology, Silesian University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, AGH University of Science and Technology, Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology, University of Lodz, Jagiellonian University, University of Silesia, Kazimierz Wielki University, Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice).

The dynamically expanding formula of the event allowed the teams to not only present game demos to the companies and independent fans (artists, conceptualists, designers and others) to meet specialists in the industry during open consultations, but it also allowed undergraduate and PhD students to meet with the heads of the R&D departments of the largest Polish companies in the computer games industry, namely: CDProjektRED, Techland, Platige Image, 11bit studios, Teyon, CI Games, and others. For game developers who are thinking about commercial development of their projects, inspirational proposals had accelerators and business incubators present during the competition, among them 11bit Studios and Dotconnect. Selected games will be developed under their wings.

A total of 28 teams from 10 Polish universities (Lodz University of Technology, Silesian University of Technology, Wroclaw University of Technology, University of Silesia, Jagiellonian University, Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, PWSZ in Skierniewice, ASP in Łódź, AfiB Vistula ZSP9 Łódź). Three teams in each category made it to the finals. These were:

The winner in the Game Development category was the Puzzles team from the Lodz University of Technology and their game ZeroG, with team members: Artur Wróblewski, Bartłomiej Waradziński, Hubert Marcinkowski, Maciej Filochowski and Mikołaj Druszcz.

zeroG - screencast, ZTGK from Bartłomiej Wardziński on Vimeo.

The other finalists in the Game Development category were:

Mashed Potatoes representing the Lodz University of Technology with the game Red Space. Team members: Bogna Dudaczyk, Grzegorz Muszyński, Jakub Rogalski, Kamil Kozłowski and Karolina Drobnik.

Red Space. A PBL project on MonoGame. from Kamil Kozłowski on Vimeo.

GRO-POL, also from the Lodz University of Technology, with the game Demensional Clash and the team made up of: Bartłomiej Paszkowski, Maciej Michalski and Marcin Gniewisz.

ZTGK 2016 ; Dimensional Clash ; GRO-POL from Marcin Gniewisz on Vimeo.

The winner in the Game Design category was the OnionMilk team from ZSP No. 9 in Lodz for their game Pigeon Fight. Team members: Maciej Nabiałczyk and Rafał Romanowicz. 

Pigeon Fight Trailer from OnionMilk on Vimeo.

Unicell Team representing the Lodz University of Technology with the game Unicell Manager, composed of Igor Derbis, Mateusz Miągowski, Kamil Kozłowski and Jakub Rogalski.

Unicell Manager. Screencast version 1 from Kamil Kozłowski on Vimeo.

Swedish Kappa Pride for the Lodz University of Technology with the game Slam Jam. Team memers: Benjamin Almö Thorsell, Dennis Johansson, Nasir Hussein and Adam Zimny.

Slam Jam Gameplay Demo from Adam Zimny on Vimeo.

In recognition of the top quality of the presented projects, 6 companies awarded special awards in the Competition to selected teams.

CI Games awarded a special prize to the Potatoes Without Hats team from the Lodz University of Technology for the game Robot Stole My Hat!. Team members: Kamil Kozłowski, Jakub Rogalski, Karolina Drobnik and Bogna Dudaczyk.

Robots Stole My Hat! Screencast version 1 from Kamil Kozłowski on Vimeo.

11-bit studios awarded a special prize in the "I?d play it" category to the OnionMilk team from ZSP No. 9 in Łódź for their game Pigeon Fight. The team was composed of Maciej Nabiałczyk and Rafał Romanowicz.

Platige Image gave a special prize for "Best Image Composition" to the Unicell Team from the Lodz University of Technology for the game Unicell Manager. Team members: Igor Derbis, Mateusz Miągowski, Kamil Kozłowski and Jakub Rogalski.

Techland awarded a special prize tothe Dynamic Duo team from the Lodz University of Technology for their game Multiversal Beatdown, whose authors were Hubert Marcinkowski and Artur Wróblewski.

Multiversal Beatdown [DynamicDuo] - ZTGK 2016 Design from Artur Wróblewski on Vimeo. 

Teyon awarded a special prize for the Fomer Games team representing the Wrocław University of Technology for their game SAAAM. Team members: Daniel Kończyk, Kacper Kowalczuk, Krzysztof Heldt, Marek Derkowski and Michał Antkiewicz.

ZTGK8 - S.A.A.A.M. from Marek Derkowski on Vimeo.

The Department of Computer Graphics and Multimedia of the IT Institute of the Lodz University of Technology awarded a special prize for the best interface to the Puzzles team from the Lodz University of Technology for the game ZeroG. Team members: Artur Wróblewski, Bartłomiej Waradziński, Hubert Marcinkowski, Maciej Filochowski and Mikołaj Druszcz.

Sponsors and partners of the Team Game Development Competition and CGI - Conference on Game Innovations:

Website of the Competition: http://gry.it.p.lodz.pl 

CGI website: http://gry.it.p.lodz.pl/cgi 

Facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/ztgkpl/

Evaluation of Projects