Danish GameDev 2015 Students Release 6 Free Premium Games

With mobile gaming becoming more and more mainstream everyday universities have started to include Android as a target platform in their game development programs and in the case of one network of schools in Denmark Android has even become their default development platform altogether. Known as The National Academy Of Digital Interactive Entertainment this organization brings together students from schools all over Denmark in order to host a series of game development courses every year called DADIU that’s designed to simulate working in a fully fledged game company by dividing participating students into six teams so that each team has all the necessary positions filled such as level designers, character artists, programmers and so on with their ultimate goal at the end of the semester to have released a AAA video game on par with or exceeding industry standards.

What’s really neat about this program is that it’s essentially a semester long game jam that gives students valuable real world experience about what it’s like to work on a fully staffed development team. Each year the students work with different industry-relevant themes and this year their objective was to create a unique new professional grade mobile game for Android tablets. At the end of the semester the six teams spent two months crafting their own dream game that will be launched during DADIU’s Graduation Game Production event throughout which the students can reach out to teachers and local experts in the game industry for advice but are largely left to their own devices in terms of the final product.

Interestingly, even though these are technically designed as free to play games all the in app purchases are just for show and actually don’t cost anything so players get to experience all of these games for completely free. Since there were six student dev teams participating in the Graduation Game Production this year that means we have 6 awesome new free games to play so without further ado let’s take a look at them.

Blobbers

This adorable physics adventure combines intuitive fling-to-move mechanics with a visually stunning underwater platforming motif that evokes shades of Spore with its bizarre cast of creatures. As a lonely blob on the ocean floor players will set out on an epic quest to smooch all the other blobs around however the bigger blobs aren’t too interested in such antics and will eat players on sight unless they are fooled by several blobs smooshed together in which case they then become part of your kissing cavalcade. With its gorgeous art design, touch friendly control scheme, and clever physics based challenges Blobbers successfully blends in with other top tier mobile games just like its title character.

[pb-app-box pname=’dk.dadiu.blobbers’ name=’Blobbers’ theme=’light’ lang=’en’]

Clockwork Dream

An artistically astonishing 3D point and click adventure game that uses its minamilistic presentation and time manipulation mechanics to tell a peculiar tale about the insides of a particular magical clock. Players take on the role of the clock’s ballerina figurine as they traverse its chaotically beautiful innards repairing and restarting components using careful time manipulation. The ability to shift objects through time and top notch visuals gives Clockwork Dream a unique atmosphere not found in other point and click adventure games.

[pb-app-box pname=’dk.dadiu.ClockworkDream’ name=’Clockwork Dream’ theme=’light’ lang=’en’]

Game Changer

This goofy isometric platformer utilizes a clever random approach to game design to create a high level of replayability that works in tandem with, rather than in spite of, its deceptive air of simplicity. As a contestant on a deadly game show it’s up to players to survive a single obstacle course over and over again but the catch is that every time the course resets a new wacky obstacle of some kind is introduced with multiple successful runs resulting in stacking modifiers. One run players might find themselves running from killer lawn gnomes and the next they’ll be dodging exploding penguins which means Game Changer truly lives up to its name.

[pb-app-box pname=’com.DADIUTeam1.GameChanger’ name=’Game Changer’ theme=’light’ lang=’en’]

Space Bears

After losing faith in humanity once we bulldoze the last forest all the bears on Earth board rocket ships and blast off into orbiting space stations. As orbital animal control it’s up to players to trick these intergalactic omnivores into accidentally strolling right out the airlock by having them chase you around their space station in this eccentric old school inspired arcade maze romp. Subsequent levels introduce new game mechanics and large stage layouts with extra coins players can collect to unlock additional outfits for their character. Space Bears offers up a deliciously twisted premise alongside addicting arcade gameplay and great 3D graphics.

[pb-app-box pname=’com.BearlyGames.SpaceBears’ name=’Space Bears’ theme=’light’ lang=’en’]

Spoken

This gloomy 3D puzzler has players escaping a treacherous dungeon by using two different characters in conjunction with each other in order to overcome traps but with one important twist. These characters don’t speak the same language and they, and therefore the player, must make up their own unique form of communication on the fly to allow them to coordinate their actions with their partner. Spoken’s intriguing language mechanic and story rich atmosphere give it more of a fascinating feel than many of its contemporaries.

[pb-app-box pname=’dk.dadiu.spoken’ name=’Spoken’ theme=’light’ lang=’en’]

Uprise

Like all the other DADIU games Uprise looks exactly like a professionally developed release with high quality production values because for all intents and purposes that’s exactly what is thanks to each student development team’s members assuming all the key roles of a modern gaming studio from designers to programmers to artists. This absolutely fantastic 3D stealth puzzler puts players in the shoes of an alien rebel who is fighting to save her family and her people by infiltrating mindbogglingly labyrinthine space prisons with the help of her trusty hacking droid that she found in a trash can. The cartoony graphic style fits perfectly with Uprise’s sci-fi aesthetic, the gameplay is genuinely stimulating, and the presentation is on par with modern high profile mobile launches which is to say it’s pretty slick.

[pb-app-box pname=’com.laserbuddies.uprise’ name=’UPRISE’ theme=’light’ lang=’en’]

Congratulations to all of this years DADIU students on making such professional quality games!