computer games development

On Tuesday, May 26, 2015, APU School of Computing and Technology in collaboration with National Kidney Foundation Malaysia (NKF) and GO Communications Sdn Bhd organized a competition to develop a mobile game application to educate young people on the importance of caring for their kidneys in order to prevent Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), a condition that damages one’s kidneys, decreasing the organ’s ability to remove harmful waste from body. CKD is a common, life-threatening illness that often goes undetected at a very advanced stage. 
                                                                                           
Three teams which consisted of students from APU’s Mobile Multimedia and Gaming module, participated in the competition. It took four months of brainstorming and coding under the guidance and supervision of lecturer Mr. Jacob Sow, but the results were well worth the effort put in. Each of the three teams produced their own mobile game application. They all featured entertaining and interactive ways to innovatively drill into users’ minds the symptoms and effects of Chronic Kidney Disease, as well as measures that can be taken to prevent the disease.  However, it was “Kidney Rescue” designed by Lee Chee Yan and Amatullah Ashfaq that ultimately stood above the rest to win the competition. The panel of judges for the competition consisted of Ms. Shobana, Head of Branding, Communications & Fundraising, NKF and Mr Muhammad Ehsan Rana, Head of School of Computing, APU. Mr Gurpardeep Singh, Vice President, Operations at APU presented tokens of appreciation to the representatives of both organizations.
 
NKF also announced “Kidney Rescue” as its first-ever mobile game application right after it emerged the winning entry in the competition.

 
Message of Mr. Chua Hong Wee, CEO of NKF
“There is a dire need to educate young people on the importance of looking after their kidneys. CKD has serious implications on the quality of one’s life. However, many people, especially young ones, underestimate the severity of kidney disease. Education is key here. This is why we have collaborated with Asia Pacific University, to creatively yet effectively utilize technology to open young minds to the growing prevalence, seriousness and prevention of kidney disease.”
 
National Kidney Foundation of Malaysia
The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) Malaysia is a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to helping Malaysians suffering from end stage kidney failure who lack access to or cannot afford dialysis treatment. NKF currently has over 1,600 dialysis patients receiving subsidized dialysis treatment in our 28 dialysis centres nationwide. For more information on CKD and National Kidney Foundation Malaysia (NKF), please visit http://www.nkf.org.my or call 03-7954 9048.

Today, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies are applied to advanced fields of medicine, engineering, education, design, training, and entertainment. To expose our students to the potential that VR & AR have in store for us, an industrial visit was organized for the Multimedia Technology (MMT) & Computer Games Development (CGD) Students from the School of Media Arts and Design (SoMAD) to MinistryXR - A company specialising in effective communications through XR – who is the pioneer in creating breakthroughs that redesign the way we Live, Work, Play and Learn by using XR Technology.

 

As part of their effort in equipping APU students into the workforce community, APIIT’s School of Media, Arts & Design (SoMAD) recently organized an industrial visit to the Streamline Studios, one of the well-established game development companies in Malaysia and worldwide for the Computer Games Development (CGD) and Visual Effects (VFX) students. This visit was coordinated and managed by our lecturers from SoMAD, with aims to introduce students to the working culture and environment in the studio.
 
During their visit, our students had a chance to talk to some of the masterminds behind internationally-renowned video game titles such as Street Fighter V, Final Fantasy XV and BioShock Infinite. Some of the highlights in this visit were the introduction to international game projects the studio was working on, as well as a sharing session that provided students with an insight of skills required to develop a career in the creative games and visual effects industry. Speakers at Streamline Studios also shared some tips and tricks of becoming a good games designer, alongside their valuable experience developing games for multinational companies over the years.
 
An extra bonus was gained as the visiting group met some of the APU alumnus, who are now working at the studio as game developers. It was a fruitful trip as it broadened the horizon of students from both CGD and VFX in this gaming industry, apart from having an enjoyable afternoon with these game experts.

Kuala Lumpur, 23 February 2017: The Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) and eSports Malaysia (eSM) launched the APU eSports Malaysia Academy at APU’s new campus in Technology Park Malaysia, Bukit Jalil today.

A Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) was signed between Datuk Parmjit Singh, CEO of APIIT Education Group, and Dato’ Latt Shariman Abdullah, President of eSM today.

This is the first partnership of eSM with a Malaysian university to establish an eSports academy within the university’s campus.

Deputy Higher Education Minister, Y.B. Datuk Mary Yap Kain Ching witnessed the MoA signing and officiated the launching ceremony.

Apart from the launch, a full-day exhibition by APU students from the Multimedia, Computer Games Development and Creative Design programmes also took place.

eSports Malaysia representative, Rinie Ramli, APIIT alumni, Wan Hazmer, who is now the Lead Game Designer of Final Fantasy XV, and APU Computer Games Development student, who is the developer of the mobile game – Flail Rider, Jussi Pekka Tuomi, also conducted talks to the participants of the event.

Upon its establishment, the APU eSports Malaysia Academy will serve as a platform for students to develop and channel their passion for competitive gaming. APU and eSM will partner in giving support, training and proper guidelines to the students, in order to equip them with essential skills to be a professional game, eSports shoutcasters, team managers and so on, thus creating new opportunities and talents within the Malaysian eSports industry.

Some of the upcoming activities that will be organized by the academy include: game tournaments, seminars, industry talks and more.

Prior to the initiation of the academy, the relationship between APU and eSM started in January 2015, in which APU received official endorsement from eSM to establish the APU eSports Club. To date, the eSports Club has 280 members, in which some of them represented APU and Malaysia in the global arena of eSports, such as the IEF International Collegiate Esports League 2016 held in Korea, as well as the League of Legends International Collegiate Championship 2016 in Taipei.

In his opening speech, Datuk Parmjit Singh, CEO of APIIT Education Group, said, “Today is a meaningful day. It is truly an honour, and a privilege for APU to be the first university in Malaysia to launch an eSports academy together with ESM. I have no doubt in my mind, that this partnership will be an amazing journey ahead. With the launch of the APU eSports Malaysia Academy, we believe that we can deliver the best programmes and activities to the students, to prepare them for their future careers in the eSports and gaming industry.”

“The Esports Academy vision is to be one of the leading Esports Academies in the world providing talents not just to our local industry but also to the international scene as well. It is well known that our local players such as Mushi, Chuan, AmTuah and many more have been competing in many international tournament all over the world so we know that our local talents are able to compete with the best in the world. However, without proper guidance and a development program, only a few are able to compete at that level and we hope with APU Esports Malaysia Academy we are able to change that. Our mission is to ensure that the students of the academy are able to master the basic skills, act professionally and are competition ready. We want the academy to be able to raise the standard of our local competitive scene to the next natural level.,” said Dato’ Latt Shariman Abdullah, President of eSM.

The event received wonderful remarks from the attendees, “It is about time that we establish a healthy environment for our university and school students to participate in competitive gaming, while instilling soft skills such as communication skills, leadership skills and critical thinking skills within them. We are very glad that eSM and APU came up with this initiative to establish the eSports academy within the university’s environment,” said Deputy Higher Education Minister, Y.B. Datuk Mary Yap Kain Ching at the launching ceremony.

31 Multimedia, VFX and Computer Games Development students together with 2 lecturers from School of Media, Arts and Design (SoMAD) and School of Computing & Technology participated in an industrial visit cum demonstration to GameFounders Asia Sdn Bhd, Bangsar South recently. This visit was arranged by Mr. Md Baharul Islam, Dr. Chen Tet Khuan,  Mr. Naresh Kumar Appadurai, Mr. Jacob Sow, and Mr. Aylmer Lee from SoMAD.
 
During the visit, representatives from the company ushered their latest developed games from different game genres and the challenges of the game level, which allowed the students to experience a better apprehension of the concept of professional game development. GameFounders is a business incubator that provides gaming startups with seed capital.
 
Later in a presentation and interactive session, students went to a game playtest session, where 10 new games were shown. Students played the new games and provided their constructive feedback,  to the corresponding game developers. This was a great learning experience for all students who participated, in which they recognized the opportunities and challenges from current Games industry. 

In summary, the highlight of this visit was that students had the opportunity and privilege to play the game before they enter the game marketplace. It was indeed a useful and interesting demonstration, which exposed students to know the challenges of detailed game characters, levels and mechanics. Both students and lecturers who participated in the visit agreed that hands-on learning experiences are essential towards enhancing the effectiveness of mastering the subjects.