Project Pixel, a gaming project co-founded by Aamir Ali, an Indian student from the University of Sheffield, is set to donate all its revenues to UK charities. Ali, a computer science student, co-founded Project Pixel with a friend less than a year ago reported News 18. Project Pixel, which creates 2D mobile games, aims to leverage the power of gaming for societal good. The initiative has quickly grown into one of the largest student-led video gaming projects in the UK.
“As the project developed, we found many students at the University of Sheffield, from various degree programs, passionate about gaming and wanting to work in the industry but unsure where to start,” said Ali. “Project Pixel has provided an opportunity to learn game development while doing good for society. We hope to inspire other universities and turn this into a global movement.”
Project Pixel involves over 25 students from diverse fields, including arts, humanities, engineering, science, and social sciences. They collaborate on programming, sound production, graphics design, story writing, character creation, and marketing to create games.
“We started Project Pixel as we wanted to make a positive impact on the world through gaming,” said co-founder Najaaz Nabhan from Sri Lanka. “The gaming industry is huge – bigger than the music and film industries combined – but from what we’ve seen many charitable initiatives are based around sponsored gaming. We wanted to do something different, so we thought why not make our own games and donate all of our revenue to charity. There are lots of students who make video games, it’s a common field, but we haven’t seen a team of this size at any university who are making games for charity.”
The University of Sheffield noted that none of the students had previous video game production experience. They are learning game development using their passion for gaming, desire to work in the industry, and skills from their degrees.
The team has already produced two games: ‘Color Dash’ and ‘Flight Frenzy.’ ‘Color Dash’ involves a quest to restore colour to a drained world, while ‘Flight Frenzy’ is an action-packed adventure of a pilot navigating obstacles. ‘Color Dash’ is available for download, and ‘Flight Frenzy’ will be published later this year with funding from the university’s Faculty of Engineering.
Two more games, ‘Turtle Odyssey’ and ‘Chef’s Last Stand,’ are in development. The students have also received advice from Sumo Digital, an award-winning video game developer based in Sheffield.
“It’s fantastic to see diverse students engaging in game development at the University of Sheffield,” said Jake Habgood, Director of Education Partnerships at Sumo Digital. “The games industry needs diverse skill sets and ideas to engage new audiences and create innovative products. We wish the students every success.”