StarCave Studios in Galway recently awarded 6 interns with certificates on completion of their summer internship programme. 15 interns started the programme in late June and this was whittled down to 6 in the final stages. None of the interns had previous game experience. The interns learned new skills in AI, 3D modelling, Photoshop, the Torque Game Engine and level design. The final 6 interns created a mini-game called ‘Spike’ which will be marketed for publishing in the future. The game will be available for download on the newly revamped StarCave website (www.starcave.com) very soon. The following post-mortem was provided by StarCave and the interns.
Post-mortem
The last week of June 2005 saw 15 Interns arrive at the StarCave office located in the Galway Technology Centre. The Torque Game Engine was selected as the core learning tool given the community support available.
The 15 Interns were divided into two teams and asked to develop a small demo of 4 levels. The same design document was given to both teams. The marketing manager, Niamh Breslin was available every day to help the interns & CEO / Producer, Keith Killilea held weekly meetings with the interns to help guide their progress. By the end of July the two teams had completed their demos. Team 1 came out on top with but only because Team 2 had lost a few members and had to re-double their efforts to deliver.
At the start of August the selected interns were combined into 1 team and set about finishing off the game. Different parts of each demo were merged together, new leaders in art, code & design were assigned and tight guidelines were set by CEO – Producer, Keith Killilea. Key aspects of the programme included bug testing, time management & work flow management. On the 10th of August StarCave was officially launched and the interns showed their two demos to an invited audience.
By the end of August 2005, the interns had successfully produced a small 3D action puzzle game called ‘Spike!’ The game includes 12 levels, dozens of baddies, upgrades and most importantly, fun gameplay.
The five interns: Oliver, Alan, Alan, Sebastian and Brendan, felt that the programme offered an excellent opportunity to work with game development technologies and to experience working in a game development team.
Following the internship programme StarCave offered contracts to the remaining 5 interns. The new recruits have formed a team called Golden Crest that will work on the game “European Adventure Tour, an extension of the Camelot Galway concept. The new game will use the Reality Engine and is aimed at PC and next generation consoles. It will be set in and around various countries throughout Europe, with each country representing a different time in history. Further details of this title will be released at a later date from the Star Cave Studios web site, http://www.starcave.com.
