Students Showcase Video Game to Industry Experts at EGX 2023

East Sussex College sponsored a gaming booth at EGX 2023 operated by Computing students and college staff, showcasing a game crafted by their tutor!

EGX 2023, the UK’s biggest gaming event, featured a booth funded by ESC which was operated by IT and Computing students. Students were proudly showcasing a game titled ‘Isle of Leil’ which was skillfully created by tutor Curtis Hawes, his company ‘Adversity Interactive’ and with the help of several students.

During the weekends, Curtis runs a small Indie Game Studio ‘Adversity Interactive’ and over the last two years has been actively developing a game called ‘Isle of Leil’. The game is nearing completion and players from around the world can download the demo and play the game. As it stands, the game has over 250k impressions and 6000 downloads and players!

Harley Adams, a Level 5 HND Creative Media Production student, took charge of designing, modelling, texturing, and animating the main protagonist, ‘Specter’. Ciaran Thistle and Michael Barlow, Computing students, contributed numerous Game Design ideas and provided quality assurance throughout the process.

Curtis Hawes, Computing lecturer at East Sussex College, said, “Thank you to the College for funding the booth at EGX 2023, it was an amazing and busy four days in which loads of industry professionals, content creators and press spoke to the students and myself about the College and the game and was a huge success!

“The IT Department runs trips to EuroGamer and the Excel Center London (EGX), the UK's biggest gaming conventions where 1000s of gamers play Indie and AAA titles. Marketing gave me the opportunity to showcase the game in front of prolific industry professionals, press and content creators from around the world. During this event three students, Harley Adams, Ciaran Thistle and Michael Barlow, gained work experience exhibiting at such a huge event in which they also had meaningful conversation with gamers and professionals. Both Michael and Ciaran are currently developing their own titles.”

Curtis added, “Gaming figures such as Shaun Mendum, voice actor for Baldur's Gate and the creator of Horror series Layers of Fear, got to play the game. Students also had the opportunity to talk to Matt Aspland, Developer at Copa and YouTuber with over 67,000 subscribers. This was an incredible networking opportunity for the learners and work experience like no other.”

If you’re interested in breaking into the gaming and computing industry, please click here for all the relevant courses on offer at East Sussex College.