UT Dallas juniors win video game design competition

Texas A&M University recently held a video game design competition called “Chillennium” that was won by University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) juniors David McCullough and Brandon Blakemore. 

The competition saw entries by students from 11 different universities, all of whom had only 48 hours to create a game centered around the word “foofaraw,” which means “a great fuss or disturbance about something very insignificant.”

McCullough and Blakemore spent hours brainstorming their game’s concept.

“We were trying to focus on the minor thing but making a big deal about it,” Blakemore said.

The game that McCullough and Blakemore -- also known as team “Bee Chill” -- ended up designing is called “Don’t Rock the Boat” and consists of a waiter on a cruise ship serving drinks to guests while the ship encounters rough waters.

“From the beginning, it’s really just getting stuff moving on the screen, getting the core mechanic in so that we could build off that,” McCullough said. “And then from there it’s like, ‘OK, well now we need a win-state or a lose-state.’ Then once we had that, it’s like, ‘OK, now we need a menu and a tutorial.’”

The game can be downloaded on Bee Chill’s website.