Creative students from East Kent College’s Broadstairs campus were invited along to Margate to take part in leading gaming festival GEEK.
Students from the Creative Industries Area were given the opportunity by organisers to showcase their skills in the fifth annual event, which draws thousands of visitors from around the country.
This year, to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the cult game Mario Kart, the festival has a range of activities dedicated to the Italian plumber, made famous by Nintendo. In order to continue the theme, Creative Industries students were asked to develop a special Mario Kart themed showcase.
Music students recreated the game’s iconic theme tune while Level 2 Performing Arts students dressed up as popular characters including Mario and Luigi to perform their Mario Kart dance. The dance took place in Dreamland’s Roller Disco which is home to the Super Mario Kart Tournament this week. Crowds gathered round to see the showcase prior to the tournament opening.
East Kent College’s computing students were also at the event’s opening today to host the ‘Demystify Bar’. The bar is new to this year’s event and is like a pop-up workshop area. Each day the Demystify Bar has a different theme from App creation to Raspberry Pi computing.
For one day only our Level 2 students passed on their skills, teaching visitors how to create a basic ‘bouncy ball’ app. Level 3 students gave public demonstrations on the differences between popular game consoles such as PS2 vs PS4 and Xbox 360 vs Xbox 1, also giving advice on how to fix common errors on home consoles.
Mollie Bolton studies Level 2 IT at the College’s Broadstairs campus. She has played a major role in getting the event running, and developing the projects for the College.
She said: “It’s been great getting to work at GEEK this year. We have come up with ideas that will show off our skills and what we’ve learnt, but are simple enough to get across to the public in quick bite-size sessions. We’re hoping that we’re invited back next year so that we can expand on what we’ve done and hopefully it will be even better.”
As part of the students’ package for taking part in GEEK, they were allowed after-hours access to the event on Thursday evening and got to have a go on some of the exhibitions including a group Halo tournament and also using the latest VR gaming equipment.
Programme Director Lesley Sadler said: “Gaming is such a passion for our students and this opportunity has been unreal. The students have spent many weeks preparing for this event and are making the most of the opportunity, it’s a brilliant chance for them to use their skills and develop new skills such a team work and event planning.”
Find out more our Computing or Performing Arts course starting this September.