Two ICT students, Foong Jing Fang and Michelle Teo, were given the coveted opportunity to work with the best young minds in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to create a totally unique computer game in nine weeks as part of the GAMBIT Summer Program.

Jing Fang who was the producer of Squeezicks, a game that explored the concept of soft-body physics in a multiplayer shooting environment, had this to say about her experience,  “The experience I had at GAMBIT Game Lab gave me a great opportunity to work and understand the game industry. Being placed in a professional environment helped improve my abilities and working attitude”. Her game was commissioned by the Boston Museum of Science to be used as part of the museum’s educational exhibits.

Michelle worked on Robotany, a game that explored specifying artificial intelligence rules and result visualisation. This game was awarded the 14th Independent Games Festival China Excellent Student Winner. Michelle said, “From my experience at GAMBIT Game Lab, I learnt how to work in a group that comprised of people with different skills, much closer to the real world than what school can offer. Also, talks from people working in the industry as well as industry visits to big game companies increased my exposure to how the game industry functions. Overall, it was a good experience from which I learnt a lot and will remember for life.”

About GAMBIT

GAMBIT stands for Gamers, Aesthetics, Mechanics, Business, Innovation and Technology. The program is a collaboration between the MIT and the Singapore government to explore new directions for the development of games. This year’s GAMBIT Program was carried out from 6 June to 8 August 2011. Students from Singapore work with MIT students to form a team to develop a game. Each team has a research goal and generally a team consists of a designer, a producer, quality assurance, programmers and artists. There is usually a graduate student and a faculty staff member assigned to each team.