University students create new ‘Castle Quest Adventure’ games

Computer gaming students have teamed up with Flintshire Countryside Service to produce six interactive games.

Using Caergwrle Castle, the Countryside team gave the Wrexham Glyndwr University students a challenge to create an arcade of games themed around the castle and the natural environment.

The aim was to encourage more people, including young people who may not have visited the castle, to interact with the fun and educational games.

Glyndwr University’s computer game development students rose to the challenge and used the project as part of their Serious Games and Immersive Technology module.

They developed many exciting games over the lifetime of the project and six of the games were chosen for their appeal to the project team and members of the public.

The successful games are:

• Caergwrle Conquest feat Dr Iving – created by Ryan Roberts
• Got Ya Socks!? – created by Philip Cholewa
• Coin Castle – created by RA
• Rural Rampage – created by Joseph Evans and Oliver Power
• Bastion of Valour – created by Alex Chambers, Alex Davies and Ryan Davies
• Castle Hunter – created by Ritchie Robinson, Alistair Shah and Jonathan Halsall

Nathan Roberts, Senior Lecturer in Computing, said: “We were delighted to partner with Flintshire’s Countryside team for this project.

“It has provided our students with a great opportunity to gain experience in developing their skills on a real-life project, and to see their work move from the planning and design stage to the finished product has been very rewarding.”

Tom Woodall, Access and Natural Environment Service manager, added: “This is an excellent opportunity to link the natural environment and local heritage with our local university, their skills and gaming technology. The gaming students rose to the challenge and have given us some excellent resources to use onsite at the Castle, but it is also a springboard to be able to use and develop these games for other countryside sites in Flintshire.”

Henry McNamara, a trainee teacher and a graduate of the course, added: The final results are brilliant, I hope that people have fun playing the games and enjoy adding to their knowledge thanks to the ideas, hard work and dedication of the students.”