Design-A-Game competition winners!

After receiving hundreds of amazing entries from more than 20 countries and 25 US states, we are thrilled to announce the winners of our Design-A-Game competition! The standard was incredibly high so choosing winners was very tough.

The Winners

We received many thousands of online votes for the competition finalists and the overall winners were picked by combining the public vote and the views of our judging panel. The panel includes experienced game designers and programmers and education experts who have worked with schools around the world for many years.

The winner from the United States final is:

Madison Sullivan and Tara Albach from New Jersey with Monkey Rush – a game where players’ monkeys swing from vine to vine, collecting bananas along the way and changing their monkey suits and outfits if they answer questions correctly.

And the winner from the international finals (and also won the international online public vote) is:

Mark Virgil Dagoro from Philippines with Sprint – a racing game where contestants advance to the finish line as they answer questions correctly, but are stopped by obstacles on the race track if they answer incorrectly.

A very special mention to Savannah Arroyo from New Jersey who is the winner of the public vote. Her game Ice Cream Wars is a battle between ice cream and cookies where every correct answer causes ice cream splatters, sprinkles or chocolate chips to be fired at the opposing team. The more coins you earn along the way the more ammunition you can earn.

The winners were kind enough to send photos of themselves – it’s great to see the faces behind the names!

It was also exciting to receive photos of Mark and his fellow students engaging in the competition – such a dynamic way to encourage the whole class to be creative!

Congratulations to all our winners! They will receive a cash prize for them and their school!

Final thoughts

We were truly impressed with the standard of artwork and effort that went into students’ game designs – everyone who entered should be proud of themselves!

CEO Charles Wiles was himself a teen gamer and programmer, creating and coding his first ever computer game at the age of 13. Charles commented:

“It all starts with a simple idea. Game play is such an innate part of a child and gamification techniques make the whole learning process more engaging and fun.”