And the other three finalists were…

Time flies when you’re either having fun, or head down trying to hold on as life takes you on an epic rollercoaster of work and other stuff. I think the last month has been a bit of both of those things combined, but I’m finally getting some air to breathe which means oxygen is making it back into my brain, giving me a chance to think.

Which also means I get to start thinking on the blog posts I’ve got outstanding, so what better time than the present to get back into it!?

First priority is to give some well-deserved coverage to the other three finalists for Imagine Cup 2010 Game Design at the world finals in Poland. While the teams from Philippines, Belgium and France got a huge amount of glory for coming first, second and third, it would certainly not be fair to give some kudos to the teams from Thailand, Brazil and Mexico who also fronted up to represent in Warsaw. As far as I’m concerned, these all came equal fourth, so don’t come asking me for placings – I won’t give them to you. That doesn’t mean I don’t have a personal preference for one over another – just that the official scoring and judging is done and dusted and should be considered all equal.

So, let’s get to it – in alphabetical order…

Brazil – Team PapaPure – Morg’s Adventure

PapaPure had a confession to make during their first presentation – they made their game for the sheer joy and fun of it. For that reason, their game was what they wanted to do – it wasn’t for a class project or for hitting some other external influence. Coincidentally it managed to align itself with the theme of Imagine Cup this year and so they decided they’d see if other people liked it too. Turns out that their unique visual style was incredibly appealing from the first time it graced the computer screens of judges the world over and they were on a winner.

Morg’s Adventure is a series of mini-games that all play individually and quite differently but have an interconnectedness that means progressing through one will impact on others. At the time of judging there were three mini-games on offer – the one shown above which was a side-scrolling platformer that had you collecting apples, a Tetris-like match-three puzzler, and a game very reminiscent of Bomberman. These familiar styles were completely intentional by the Brazilian team – they wanted to pay homage to the old school arcade games that they love and they wanted to have familiar, easy to pick up interfaces for the player.

The highlight though was the graphical style – very unique and definitely a standout in quality that sets the bar firmly way over my head – if only I could be that good! :)

Mexico – Fomis Team – The Chronicles of Balam

The Mexican team had perhaps the most unfinished overall game but what they had was all good. The amount of detail put into this game was incredible. On the surface it looked like a simple 3D action game – you control a humanoid tiger, talk to a turtle to get your missions and complete each task to fill out a lily pad. The game shown in Poland only had the first level/lily pad ready to go, but they had another 7 defined for future development. But then you look into the game a bit more and discover that the tiger – and the turtle – are endangered species and you get facts and figures about them to help raise awareness of endangered wildlife. The clothes on your character are modelled off official UN garb right down to the colouring and things like the helmet.

And the missions themselves are educational – the first one tasks you with gathering rice. But again, it goes deeper than that because there are three types of rice each one a little more rich than the previous one, but the idea is to combine different rice types to cause a third one to grow – NERICA rice. As you play you get information about this rice as a way to increase yield and protein content in rice. It’s a very cool way of not just addressing a generic theme but bringing in specifics that face the real world into the game world effectively.

Props to these guys for also having the best set of marketing collateral ready to go, including embroidered shirts, demo discs, pamphlets and of course a giant stuffed tiger specially made for them and looking exactly like the character in game.

Thailand – Team JubJub – Junk Master – The Journey To Junk Lord

There were quite a few garbage collection style games in the submissions this year, but none came close to the polish and variety found in this cute puzzler from Thailand. JubJub presented the judges with multiple levels of play, each with their own style and a variety of enemies and challenges, including quiz elements to test your knowledge about recycling and the impact on the environment by different types of trash. Very simple premise – different types of garbage get thrown all over the screen, and you have to sort them into the appropriate categories. Do enough in a row and you start getting multipliers, but get one wrong and you have to start all over again. The cockroaches (seen on this screenshot) and other baddies appear to get in your way, but with various power-ups you can knock them down or sweep them away.

It’s simple, but with a time limit as well and an increasing level of difficulty, this was perhaps the most complete game on offer in Poland, perhaps only eclipsed by the eventual winner, Wildfire (worth mentioning, , the competition didn’t require complete games, only one level, so that didn’t factor into judging). I’d love to see this on Xbox Live Arcade or for sale for Windows PC – it’s almost right for a Windows Phone game too.

So there you have it – the other three Game Design teams that made it to Poland and their creations. They should be incredibly proud and definitely trade on the value to be had on making it to the top six – I hope that all of them somehow release their games to the public so you can all get a chance to play.