Media Design School’s game development students land place on PlayStation project

Media Design School teamed up with Sony Computer Entertainment New Zealand to offer game development students the chance of a lifetime and in the end it was Martin Ponichtera (left) and Ben Carnell (right) were given the opportunity to work alongside PlayStation.

Sony challenged students to develop a Kiwiana-themed level for the new LittleBigPlanet game on PlayStation Vita.

Working in teams, students developed levels using hardware supplied by Sony and presented their ideas to director of sales and marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment David Hine and senior product manager Krister Robinson.

The Sony team were so impressed by the students that they offered four students the opportunity to join the team and work alongside PlayStation on LittleBigPlanet activities.

Ponichtera and Carnell (overall winners) and Matthew Bowen and Tian-Hua Chai who also got the chance to appear on the U Live television show to demonstrate their levels.

Says Hine: “I was very impressed with the standard of entries for the Media Design School students. The enthusiasm and hard work they put in to creating their levels on LittleBigPlanet on the PlayStation Vita was outstanding.

“The creativity and artistry showed the students are developing strong game creation skills. They used a range of different functions to show what LittleBigPlanet can do on the PlayStation Vita and managed to bring a unique Kiwi flavour to each level.”

In addition, the overall winning team of Ponichtera and Carnell scooped a PlayStation Vita each along with a bundle of PlayStation games.