Games graduates selected for national Tranzfuser competition

Computer Games Design and Game Art graduates from the University of South Wales have been selected for Tranzfuser 2023 – a national competition to find the games developers of the future.

Now in its eighth year, Tranzfuser supports UK graduates to build successful video game development studios, giving them the freedom and space to develop video game IP they want to make and see others play.

The teams – Knockback Games and Dragon Scale Studios – will each receive £7,500 to support the development of their games, as they work towards showcasing their projects at Insomnia, a gaming festival in Birmingham, from 7-10 September. Being selected also includes one-to-one support from industry professionals and a tailored programme of business skills development.

Competing against teams from all over the UK, the teams will pitch their prototypes to a panel of games industry experts, and will have the opportunity to apply for further grants from the UK Games Fund of up to £25,000.

One of the winning teams from last year’s Tranzfuser was Skyline Studios, a team of USW graduates in Computer Games Design and Game Art, who went on to develop Escalar, a single player fantasy-based third person adventure game.

Dragon Scale Studios – made up of Luke Maloney, Jan Palka, Ariana Dring-Sandberg, Ethan Morrison, Sam Riley and Dave Warburton – are working on Set Sail!, a pirate adventure where up to four players can loot, fight and sail together through a range of different levels, firing cannons and plundering treasure chests along the way.

Luke said: “We are incredibly grateful and excited to have been selected for Tranzfuser as it helps to keep doing what we love – making games!

"It’s an opportunity to network with other artists and designers while creating our own product and having the experience of running our own games company. We’re excited to see what comes next.”

Knockback Games is made up of Usman Tarafdar, Jaz Banson and Kothil Rajavelu. They are working on Sincognito, a PC horror-style game in which the player attempts to defeat the seven deadly sins.

Usman said: “We’re excited to have gotten this far in Tranzfuser 2023 as it offers so many opportunities.

"The experience of pitching our game has already proved very useful as we have been able to constantly adapt Sincognito and, if we’re successful, we’ll be able to develop it into the commercially viable product we’d like it to be.”