After months of research, animation and computer coding, the winning game of the National Heritage Board’s Mission Darkstar – Heritage Gaming Redefined competition was announced last Thursday at the official prize giving ceremony held at Funan Digitalife Mall. Guest of Honour for the event was MICA Deputy Secretary (Information & Corporate Management) Rear Admiral (NS) Sim Gim Guan.

Team Cravirtua, with their game entitled Singapura Fiesta – The Lahyon Roars, beat four other finalists and walked away with a cash prize of S$8,000 in this first online gaming competition that aims to boost heritage awareness among youths in Singapore and harness the collective creativity of web-savvy Singaporeans.

The six-member team of Cravirtua are all students from ITE Macpherson. Their game, Singapura Fiesta – The Lahyon Roars was selected after attaining the highest score in various levels such as gaming interactivity, audio/visual design, multiplayer functionality, heritage elements and number of votes/hits from the general public.  The multi-genre and multi-player game, which attained a total of 12,024 hits since it was first opened to the public, includes everything from action and adventure to tactical-thinking and RPG.

Said Glenn Toh, programmer, artist and leader of Cravirtua: “Apart from gaming mechanics and programming, we had to do a lot of research on Singapore’s history and heritage during the making of the game. We wanted to offers gamers a colourful mix of history and heritage delivered in an exciting and entertaining way”.

The other four games – Legends of Singapura, Back In Time, Singaport and Love By Past – which took second, third and consolation prizes respectively, put up a good fight in the competition, which began in December last year.

Following the competition, the games will continue to be featured on the teams’ websites to reach out and connect with youths. The games will also be presented to various schools with the aim that they can serve as interactive and ‘edutaining’ learning resources in the classroom. Furthermore, NHB is continuing to collaborate with various educational institutions and students in the creation of future gaming projects that will spread heritage awareness among youths in Singapore. This will also contribute to the local gaming industry that is starting to slowly grow.

We would like to extend a big thank you to everyone who played the games and voted for your favourite teams. Your unwavering support certainly played a huge role in the competition.  Do continue to play the games at www.missiondarkstar.com.sg