Graduate Games Studio Wins National Prize

Studio Mutiny, a team of Falmouth graduates, has won a major competition and scooped £25,000 from the UK Games Fund.

Transfuzer is a UK-wide competition designed to seek out and support the next generation games development talent.

For Studio Mutiny, the prize money will allow them to continue to develop their game, Sai, which was started as a third-year student project. It’s a ground-breaking project which uses gaming to raise awareness of environmental issues and the climate emergency.

Jonny Lee, Studio Mutiny company director, explained how the game works:

The game and the studio are all centred around ecology and conservation. Essentially, the game is about deforestation. You play as a Celtic warrior trying to protect the forest. 

“We all love making games together but I think the most important thing for us is making a game that tackles the things we’re interested in, outside of game development, like conservation. We feel really lucky to be able to do it because a lot of people get stuck making games for the sake of making games but we’re able to contribute to wider issues affecting society through what we’re good at which is incredibly exciting.”

Studio Mutiny fought off strong opposition during the competition and in the final, they beat 12 other teams from across the UK. 

Commenting on Studio Mutiny’s success, Dr Doug Brown, Director of the Games Academy said: “The whole Games Academy is delighted for this team of graduates. Studio Mutiny can now not only continue development on their promising and polished title with this funding, but also leverage the prestige this announcement has generated to bid for further funding from publishers and investors. Regardless of what happens to the project, this show of confidence from the UK Games Fund will supercharge all of their career prospects in the industry.  We are also very pleased that they aim to stay in Cornwall if possible, retain a close affiliation with the Games Academy and mentor future students who will look to emulate this success.”

“This win is a testament to the way Falmouth University teaches its students in innovative ways particularly our focus on teamwork, a model which has also recently been endorsed by the Princeton Review as one of the leading games schools in the world.  Finally, we are glad to see the team’s focus on sustainability in their game’s message and studio’s values. Part of the point of teaching games at university is to change the industry, not just emulate it, and with this focus that’s exactly what these grads are doing.” 

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