Barclays And Nse Announce New Games Innovation Challenge
Barclays and NSE (National Student Esports), the official body for university esports in the UK and the most active grassroots gaming community in the country, are proud to announce the first Games Innovation Challenge, a games development competition for students across the UK to test their skills and creativity.
Starting on 14th January, participants will have nine weeks to create the most innovative and competitive games with the chance to win a portion of the £5,000 prize pool. The winning prize is £3,000, with second and third place prizes of £1,250 and £750 respectively.
‘Competitive games’ is the theme for the inaugural challenge and each submission is required to showcase an original concept with the goal of pitting players against each other. Students are also encouraged to submit a plan on how a competition of their proposed game would be run.
Teams can be formed of students from different universities and also contain non-students. However, to participate in the challenge, the majority of the team and the project lead must be enrolled at university. Any platform and prebuilt assets can be used, provided that they have the permission or license to do so.
A panel of gaming and esports industry experts will be judging the entries on five criteria; technical quality, aesthetic, entertainment, innovation and competition plan.
“We’re delighted to be working with NSE on an initiative like the Games Innovation Challenge that creates opportunities to help students develop and grow,” said David Gowans, Head of Games and Esports, Barclays.
“As we are not able to hold live events for the foreseeable future, we see the importance of bringing students together from across the country to collaborate with each other online.”
The initiative is the first collaboration between Barclays and NSE since the announcement of their partnership for the 2020/2021 academic year in June. The partnership announcement followed the Barclays Game Technology Frenzy event, which took place last year at the Barclays’ headquarters in London, where the bank worked with NSE to showcase some of the best student teams competing in the British University Esports Championship.
Applications for the Games Innovation Challenge will open on 14th January 2021, with a closing date of 18th March 2021, with submissions made online. The winner will be announced on the 9th April 2021.
Barclays says its support of the initiative is part of a wider goal to champion the gaming and esports industry in the UK, and in addition to its partnership with NSE, the bank has partnered with the UK League of Legends Championship (UKLC) and Ukie, the UK’s games and interactive entertainment trade association.
