Microsoft and the Welsh Government have given two Cardiff Met Students the opportunity of investment of up to £60,000 to develop their game idea.
Microsoft and the Welsh Government have given 2 Cardiff Met Students the opportunity of investment of up to £60,000 to develop their game idea.
Julian Wreford and James Taylor, both 3rd year Software Engineering students at Cardiff Met, have been short-listed to pitch their idea, QuizIt, to a panel of Microsoft Executives and the Welsh Government in London on the 13th November. QuizIt is a fun and addictive app where users can test their knowledge of popular cultural TV show. Users are able to try and outsmart other people or even someone they know in real-time head-to-head challenges.If their pitch is successful they will join 3 other indie game studios from Wales on the pilot Greenshoot Programme.
Microsoft Greenshoots is an incubation programme that Microsoft has been running in cohorts with Creative England over the past two years to provide the game developers with the funding and the support they require to make commercially successful games.
Microsoft has worked with many successful studios in England in the past and, with support from the Welsh Government, is now piloting the programme in Wales.
Julian Wreford, said "Everyone in the team is really excited to represent Wales and Cardiff Met University. We have been working hard developing the prototype MMO game server the past few weeks".
Julian, first presented the app idea at Cardiff Met’s Countdown To Launch where he was awarded £1,500 to help get his idea off the ground.
Countdown to Launch is a five day business start-up programme Sponsored by Santander and Welsh Government in partnership with Cardiff Met University.
James Taylor, said "It’s exciting and we all feel that if we win the support from Microsoft then this is just the beginning. We have plans to develop other game titles further down the line."
Both Julian and James are part of a team of four indie developers that make up small start-up game studio Wired Voltage.
If successful they will get access to Microsoft’s BizSpark programme that will support the studios with a wealth of development software, expert guidance, technical advice and an introduction to investors.
Under the pilot project, games developers will have to bid for funding and the top four successful developers will each receive a grants towards building new titles for the Xbox One, PC and mobile platforms.