A GAME designed by Priestley College students is to be exhibited this weekend at Play Expo in Manchester.

Gemma Dunne, 18, Sam Sharps, 17, Aaron Hughes, 17, Ty Armfield, 17, and Zac Pridden, 17, got the opportunity after pitching 'Shroomio's Adventure' to a panel of industry experts at the Pyramid centre.

Among them were Arthur Parsons of TT Games, the studio behind the Lego games, Bill Carr of Warrington digital agency Carpe Diem, Mark Gregory of Freesphere Entertainment and indie game producer Kiera Caoimhe Roddy.

Second year students of Priestley's computer game design course have been working on their games for a variety of platforms including virtual reality, mobile and PC since January.

They were split into four teams before developing their games from scratch over four months for a coveted place at Play Expo where indie releases are exhibited to hundreds of gamers.

After a pitch and a play test, Gemma, Sam, Aaron, Ty and Zac – better known as Slime Mouse Games – were declared the winners.

Northwich Guardian:

Sam , who worked on the game's 3D art, said: "It was really interesting getting the perspective of people who have taken games to market.

"It was definitely a new experience for us to see how they interpreted our game and it was quite nerve-racking making sure our game reached the standards expected.

Shroomio's Adventure, a 2.5D platform game inspired by Little Big Planet and Journey of a Roach, is about small mushroom creatures whose forest home has been invaded by machines made from scrap.

The aim is to save the creatures' home and judges were impressed by the art style, refined gameplay and quirky nature of it.

Matthew Wilson, who teaches computer games design at Priestley, added: "There’s a lot of work they’ve got to do in preparation for it so it probably won’t sink in until they get there.

"The event attracts around 2,000 each day so it’s really good for exposure.

"They’ll be in the developer stands so they’ll be alongside indie developers who are trying to put a game out into the industry. I wanted to give them an experience of what that’s like to communicate with players and show your work off at that level