It is award season here at Georgia Tech. Several students have recently earned recognition for their innovate projects at two major events. First, a video game created by a group of Georgia Tech students, a Georgia Tech alumnus, and one Georgia State student was voted best in the state by a panel of video game professionals.

“Merciful God,” the team’s four-player Mario Party-style, battle royale was created by three Georgia Tech undergraduates Kartik Kini, Domenic Valles, Eric Cook, a Georgia Tech alumnus Garrett Stache, and one Georgia State undergraduate Zachary Woomer during a 48-hour, race-against-time game development competition called the “Global Game Jam.”

“It was an overwhelming feeling of excitement and goosebumps,” said Kartik Kini, Georgia Tech student and team member describing the moment he learned the news. “It was really amazing,” adds Garett Stache Georgia Tech alumnus and lead artist for the team, “it took a good week for me even accept that we won.”

Global Game Jam is a nonprofit organization that sanctions a collection of two-day video game development “jam sessions” at multiple locations around the world. This year’s Atlanta event was hosted and held at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in downtown. “Merciful God” won over judges with its addictive gameplay and visual appeal. The team beat nearly 200 other video game enthusiast to win first place at the annual event. Impressed with the level games developed at all the Georgia sites, the Georgia Game Developers Association (GAGDA) hosted a battle-of-the-best event at Perimeter Mall, where “Merciful God” continued to dominate earned the title of “Best in Georgia.”

At the University of Michigan, Computer Science major Manav Dutta and his team beat nearly 150 other teams at the annual “MHacks” event held at the university and placed in the top three. Dutta and his teammates (Sunny Hong, Jeffery Chung, and Andy Chung) developed a Google Glass app that uses facial recognition to help people with autism recognize facial expressions and social cues.

“For people with autism, It’s hard to engage with others,” says Manav, “the social cues people without autism take for granted aren’t apparent to those with autism,” he adds. 

Both teams are using the momentum of their respective victories to boost their future plan. Dutta and his teammates are pursuing a potential startup venture while investigating how to make the app applicable to other devices and more accessible to people.

The team behind “Merciful God” won a booth at the South’s largest video game conference, the Southern Interactive Entertainment and Game Expo (SIEGE CON), in October for winning the GAGDA state competition. The team plans to display their next project during the conference. Until then, the team is discussing what do next with “Merciful God” and how to use the relationships they built during the Global Game Jam.

If you would like to learn more about “MHacks” and the resources they provide, please follow the links provided.

For additional information on Global Game Jam or to download your own copy of “Merciful God” for Windows and Mac OX, please follow the links provided.