A hotly contested competition for first place at the 21st National Games Fleadh between Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) and the University of Limerick (UL), saw the latter edge out the hosts to take victory by the slightest of margins at the competition held on the TUS Thurles Campus.
Games Fleadh 2024, the Games Design & Development competition, announced record attendance this year, as the best of the country’s third-level student game developers came together to battle it out for 13 titles and the coveted Robocode competition.
First year programming students who participated in Robocode, were provided an opportunity to demonstrate their programming abilities and advance their knowledge of GUI programming, API usage and Artificial Intelligence. Those watching the Robocode 2024 competition were provided with a hotly contested, nail-biting final as it was won by UL’s Nathan Ndlovu, Lewis Ubebe, Maksims Gerkis, with TUS Thurles’s Toby Womack coming a close second.
TUS Moylish student Kamil Sibiga came third and fourth was SETU Carlow’s Darian Byrne, and Robert McGregor in this competition.
Meanwhile competitors, competing as teams, were asked to focus on the theme ‘Starting with Nothing” as they designed action-packed games to test their skills. In total 13 awards were given out in the competition.*
Congratulating this Games Fleadh 2024 winners, President of TUS Professor Vincent Cunnane said, “The gaming industry has developed and expanded significantly since the first ever Games Fleadh held on the TUS Thurles Campus 21 years ago. It is now one of the fastest growing sectors in the global economy, providing new career opportunities for graduates. The growing popularity of a career in this €165 billion industry was evident from the record number of third and second level students attending this year’s event, and hoping to forge an exciting career in Game Development”
Dr Liam Noonan Programme Leader for BSc in Software Development with Games Programming TUS, said, “Once again, we saw a very high level of talent on display at this year’s Games Fleadh, and the high standard of the talent was especially eveident in the small margin between the different results I would like to thank our sponsors, EA Games, FiServ and all other supporters who contribute massively to the success of Games Fleadh each year, and this year was no exception.”
Full List of Games Fleadh 2024 Categories and Winners:
- Best User in Interface Design: Star Bean Project Coffee, SETU Carlow.
- Best in Games Mechanics: Cosmic Knight, TUS Thurles Campus.
- Best in Game Narrative: Patient Zero, TUS, Athlone Campus.
- Best in Use of Physics Algorithms: Ozymandias, TUS Athlone Campus.
- Best in Use of AI Algorithms: SCAI, TU Dublin.
- Best in Game Play: Bronze Age Brawl, SETU, Carlow.
- Best Video Game Trailer: SCAI, TU Dublin
- Best in Original Art Assets: Doctor Lotl, TUS Clonmel Campus.
- Best in Sound Design: Star Bean Project Coffee, SETU Carlow.
- Highly Commended (VR): Segmentation Fault, TU Dublin.
- Highly Commended Multi Player: Amazeing (sic), TUS Athlone Campus.
- Best Games Using a Game Engine: Sumo Strikers, TU Dublin.
- Best Game Built Using Software Libraries: Reclaim, SETU Carlow.
Special Mentions:
Engineering Complexity: Motorola Mayhem, SETU, Carlow.
Procedural Maze Building Complexity: Fomorians TUS Thurles, Campus.