Hacktron v1.0
Nawodya Ishan Nimeshana | Undergraduate | Sri Lanka Technological Campus
The IEEE Computer Society Student Branch Chapter of Sri Lanka Technological Campus has organized “HackTron v1.0” powered by 99x, the first-ever Virtual Game Development Bootcamp and Hackathon in Sri Lanka to impart knowledge on game development for all enthusiasts and to make new impetus to the game development industry in Sri Lanka. To enhance that aim, we launched the project; “HackTron v1.0” with the highly motivated participation of over 30 universities in Sri Lanka through 90 degree programs related to the Information and Communication Industry.
The project consists of three main chapters,
- Chapter 01: Game Development Bootcamp
- Chapter 02: Inter-University Game Development Hackathon
- Chapter 03: RiseUp – Industrial talks with entrepreneurs
As the first chapter of the project, it consists of 10 continuous days of Bootcamp held from 30th September to 09th October 2021. Through the Bootcamp, enthusiasts were able to sharpen their knowledge on 3D & 2D Game Developing, Concept Art Designing, and 3D Designing with Unity Engine, to compete in the Hackathon to be the best. The entire Bootcamp was conducted by Resource Persons from Prodigi Interactive, RAM Studios, and Heladev. Upon completion, participants were evaluated by four tasks; Concept Art & 2D Designing, Scripting Task, 3D Graphic Designing, and Terrain Designing Task, and top performers in each task were awarded specialization certificates and 2 million worth of game development scholarships.
Parallel to both chapters, a Panel Discussion named “RiseUp -Industrial talks with entrepreneurs” was held for 3 days about the future of the Industries; IT, Game Development, and its startups with the presence of well-recognized entrepreneurs from ShoutOUT Labs, Prodigi Interactive, RAM Studios, Youlead, Magicbit(Pvt)Ltd and Fcode Labs, with the aim of imparting the knowledge on startups for the younger generation, willing to bloom in those industries.
As the second chapter of the project, the inter-university Hackathon consisted of 6 weeks held from 11th of October 2021 to 14th of November 2021 in three main rounds; first round, semi-final round, and final round. Teams, consisting of 2-5 members in the same university were asked to submit a game development idea through a proposal, under the given structure for the first round. Thereafter, 30 teams with the best gaming concepts were selected by a judging panel and asked to provide their gaming ideas through a proposal with the demonstration in front of a judging board for the semi-final round. In the final round, top-ten gaming ideas were selected among them and invited to demonstrate their developed game in front of the judging board, after being given 2 weeks to implement the gaming ideas as their preference. Upon completion of three rounds, the top three developed games were awarded the cash prizes of
- Rs. 100,000 for the winner
- Rs.75,000 for the first runner-up
- Rs. 50,000 for the second runner-up
and, meanwhile, the Most Popular Game Trailer Video was selected through a voting round. Apart from that, two teams were awarded internships at RAM studios as special awards and all competitors were given a participation certificate.
In conclusion, we were able to carry out the responsibility of developing the strategic initiative HackTron v1.0 as the first-game development platform for enthusiasts in Sri Lanka. With the hope of making a new revival in the fields of IT and game development, we are planning to launch this project in the next coming years, targeting to reach the international stage as the newest impetus in Sri Lankan gaming history.
