Canalside Studios
Creating placement opportunities for students at the University of Huddersfield since 2006
Canalside Studios is an award-winning games development studio based in the School of Computing and Engineering at the University of Huddersfield. Each year, the studio is supported by a new team of placement students, and overseen since 2015 by Senior Lecturers Dr Duke Gledhill and Matthew Novak who specialise in Computer Games Development.
Each year Canalside Studios employs placement students who are enrolled on the BA(Hons) Computer Games Design and the BSc (Hons) Computer Science with Games Programming courses at the University of Huddersfield. These students work together in a studio environment in which they spend a fully funded year creating a game for release.
The studios main purpose is to create a game which can be released at the end of the year; this helps the students when applying for jobs after graduation. In some cases the games go on to win awards after release, further elevating the employability of the students who worked on the game.
Part of the University of Huddersfield
Award Winning Development Studio
Independent Student Lead Game Studio
History of Canalside Studios
Canalside Studios was founded by the University of Huddersfield in 2006 and was named for the building where the studio is based – although the building has since been renamed the Spärck Jones building.
The studio enjoyed early success when in 2007 the team was awarded second place in Microsoft’s Inaugural Dream Build Play competition with their game, Yo-Ho Kablammo. They saw off competition from over 3,600 entrants, with the team taking home a game development contract with Microsoft. Once Yo-Ho Kablammo was completed, it was released on Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE Arcade marketplace, giving the gaming industry its first taste of the potential of Canalside Studios.
Barely a year after Yo-Ho Kablammo’s success, another member of the studio received the prestigious Imagine Cup award in Games Design at Microsoft UK for their game, Drizzle. From that point on the studio built upon its successes to win multiple competitions, including Microsoft’s X48 and more recently in the Game’s Republic Showcase.
In the past, the team have been given the chance to work with outside contractors; in one year, they worked with the Royal Armories in Leeds to create an educational game for use within the museum. In another year, the team also worked with West Yorkshire Fire Services to create a simulator.
Since Duke and Matt took over management of the studio in 2015, the focus has returned to commercial game development with successes on Desktop, Android and iOS… and soon the Nintendo Switch.
Learn more about this years development, or visit the archives to see some of the past teams and their games.