First- and second-year computer science students Spencer Whyte and Uri Gorelik were going to name themselves "Team Awesome," but instead they settled on "We're Just Here For Swag."
The students took part in The Great Canadian Appathon, a cross-country weekend event where developers competed to create the best Windows mobile phone app in 48 hours from March 11-13.
Teams competed for a number of prizes, including a $25,000 cheque, a job at a leading game developing studio in Toronto and having their game published.
While Gorelik said some teams never left the hub, his own team didn't seem too fazed about the time crunch.
"[We] took it pretty easy . . . I slept in on Saturday, and showed up at about 1 [p.m.]," he said.
But they were prepared: Gorelik said they thought of their game idea the day before the contest started, started sketching their design, and then began writing the code.
Their game, called "Triangle Forever," is fast-paced and easy to play. In the game, you're a small triangle that navigates through enemies and blocks, according to Gorelik.
One person who is judging Gorelik’s game this week is developer Michael Brown.
Brown, a producer at XMG Studios, supervised the competing developers. He said it was impressive watching Carleton computer science students in their element.
Gorelik said there definitely were some tense moments when it was down to the grind March 13.
They were still tweaking “Triangle Forever” before the final deadline, when their Internet briefly cut out – and Gorelik admits his team was getting irritable.
“One group was playing the most annoying song ever [for their game] and they kept playing it over and over again,” he said.
But Gorelik said these were minor hitches in an otherwise awesome weekend.
“It teaches you how to work with others . . . we’re all building a Jenga tower together, and everybody has their own piece and it all stacks together,” Brown said.
The grande finale will pit the three Appathon finalists head-to-head, April 7 as they compete on a big pedestrian screen set up at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto.