Board games by Abertay students win top awards in China

Innovative board games created by Abertay University students, based around the experience of studying abroad, have won top prizes at a gaming expo in China.

Cultural Campus, by Li Da, Dong Zechen, Chen Zhengru and Liu Yangyu Xuan, was awarded the prestigious Player’s Choice prize at the WePlay Game Culture Exhibition.

Space Battleship by Wu Xilin won the Best Presentation prize.

WePlay – attended by more than 10,000 people – is an event which showcases both video and tabletop games.

The winning students are part of an MPPOP (Masters of Professional Practice in Games Development Orientation Programme) that Abertay has been running in collaboration with China-based entertainment and education company Perfect World.

The successful partnership – which has been in place since 2016 – involves a joint teaching programme in both Scotland and China

Their games were the end product of a research project looking at culture shock, and aim to reflect the kind of experiences an international student faces while studying abroad.

Ken Fee, Senior Lecturer at Abertay, said: “The feedback from judges about these games was extremely positive, and we’re delighted to see the creativity of our students being recognised in such a high profile way.

“It’s further evidence of the success of our partnership with Perfect World which continues to provide exciting opportunities for students and academics.”

To find out more about computer games degrees at Abertay visit: https://www.abertay.ac.uk/schools/school-of-design-and-informatics