Congratulations to Cole Huynh in Year 9 for being a finalist in the 2019 Australian Stem Video Game Challenge!
Cole says he has "always been into STEM for as long as [he] can remember", and entered the STEM challenge after receiving a scholarship through the school from past students Josh Caratelli and Liam Mclachlan, funded by the reinvestment of prize money from the past students' multi-award winning Smog Game. As this year's recipient of the STEM Scholarship started at Elwood College, Cole received a new laptop and STEM mentorship.
The theme of this year's competition was 'Emergence'. Cole designed a game called Transition, "an addictive endless runner for mobiles".
"It is an LGBTQIA+ game that follows a transgender character that transitions from female to male (ftm). You must jump from platform to platform as you pick up coins to boost your score and make friends who change the way you see the world around you. No one wants to stay in darkness forever, emerge and see the colour!"
As part of his game design, Cole had to create art, work with a timeline, make sounds, learn a new coding language, code the game, and troubleshoot, all while balancing his Year 9 studies and other commitments - overall, a massive project and an incredible achievement.
You can see Cole's impressive game design document detailing the process here, and download his game on mobile via Google Play early access here, or for Windows here.