Thousands of DMU students graduated in July after years of hard work. We reported some of their stories in our Class of 2015 series...
Jetting off to Malta to work on a mobile game has helped one De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) student to develop the skills he needs to set up his own business.
Derry Holt, who is delighted to be graduating with First Class honours in Computer Games Programming BSc (Hons), went to the Mediterranean island as part of his third-year placement at Exient.
He’d already been working at the firm’s Oxford headquarters for seven months, helping to develop an Angry Birds 3D kart spin-off for publisher Rovio, before he was given the opportunity to fly out to its new studio.
He said: “Within weeks I was on a plane and I ended up living in Malta for five months! I continued working on ‘Angry Birds Go!’, having joined the project at the beta period, seeing it through to its full release and beyond. I coded the majority of the tutorial system, the notifications and pop-ups, and hooked up a lot of audio cues for the designers. It was a lovely country and a fantastic experience – I learned a lot.”
At the same time fellow DMU student James Heath was enjoying a placement at Mediatonic in London, working for popular Japanese developer Square Enix on Heavenstrike Rivals for the iOS and Android platforms. The friends have now decided to join forces after leaving university and have set up Stormburst Studios.
Derry said: “We thought that as we had two years’ experience at two different companies, we’d just go for it. We’ve managed to secure a place on the Entrepreneurial Spark programme in Birmingham for 18 months – that’s huge for Stormburst Studios.”
“We’re looking forward to releasing our first game, codenamed Ripples, around Christmas. Gamified technologies is another huge area for us, which sees immersive gameplay elements, like points scoring and achievements, brought into non-gaming contexts to engage and motivate users.”
Derry, originally from Tamworth, will miss the atmosphere at DMU and said: “You look around and everyone’s the same – they’re all doing something they love. It’s been the best time of my life.”
He was also full of praise for De Montfort Student Union (DSU) and the role it plays in university social life: “I’m the chairman of the League of Legends society and DSU have been great with us. We set it up at the start of the year and had around 80 registered members, with 40 regularly attending socials and events.
“We were nominated for DSU’s ‘Society of the Term’ award and also organised a trip through #DMUglobal to go to Poland to watch a massive e-sports event and visit Auschwitz.”
Posted on Wednesday 8 July 2015