VUT students design a 2D game for early childhood development

VUT students that participated in the 2D early childhood development games

Puleng Maphisa

Liquid Telecom South Africa has partnered with the University of Johannesburg (UJ) to launch a new research and technology hub focused on digital innovation and human capital development by providing African students with the skills they need to excel in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The Liquid Telecom UJ Research Hub, Kingsway campus invited students from two universities, VUT and UJ, WITS and Liquid Telecom Learnership team to take part in the first game development hackathon during the week of 28 January to 1 February 2019.  A five-day event, consisted of formal courses and practical training on how to develop games, gaming theory and the Unity platform.  Participants were required to collaborate to create a game in a native language and English that helps in early childhood development.  The Top 5 teams competed to win part of the R10 000.00 in cash.

The focus was on children with special needs and the introduction of early intervention strategies through an occupational therapist.  The leader of the project, Dr Reolyn Heymann a lecturer at UJ, mentioned that they would be creating 3D robotic games to assist university students to prepare for tests and learn while playing games.

The VUT team named “Undercovers” comprised of Thato Mashegoane, Daniel Mlambo and Nkateko Sithole designed a game that would assist children to type words in Sesotho while learning.  They made it through to the top three.  They received an amount of R1 500 as a prize for position 3 while position 2 was taken by SA Games from UJ and position 1 by Afritech from UJ.  Position 2 and 3 received an amount of R1 500 and R6 000 respectively.

The undercovers said they were both excited at their achievement and also relieved that the pressure was over as the challenge had not been an easy one.