Student gamers supporting St Austell revitalisation  

A group of games design students are putting their specialist skills to use, contributing to the upcoming project to revitalise St Austell town centre.

The team of talented young techies, all currently studying Games Design & Animation at Cornwall College St Austell, have been commissioned with an exciting new VR development task from the St Austell Town Centre Revitalisation Project.

Having commissioned landscape architects Mei Loci to prepare proposals highlighting areas of the town that could be improved for both local businesses and the community, the project team now needs a way to visualise the proposed environment virtually, experiencing their vision in 3 dimensions.

David Atkinson-Beaumont is head of campus at Cornwall College St Austell and described the project as “a fantastic opportunity for our students to engage in a real-life brief.”

“In parallel to the exciting new upcoming developments at the St Austell college campus, the Revitalisation Project partnership team has been working hard to improve the town centre for the whole community,” explained David.

“I’m fortunate to be involved in the partnership myself alongside local business leaders, town councillors, and other representatives from the voluntary sector. To help us to better experience the proposed changes, our games design students have been working with the landscape architects to visualise concepts in virtual reality using the Unreal Engine and 3D Studio Max.”

In addition to the work completed by the landscape architects, which is currently being prepared for public consultation, the partnership has also commissioned an education strand to understand the needs of the area, hearing opinions on the future of St Austell from local young people.

Through the Cornwall College Student Union (CCSU) students will be polled on campus as to what they would like to see in the future developments of the town

On behalf of everyone at the College, the head of campus described it as “a real thrill” being involved in the project.

“I can’t tell you how excited our student gamers are to be taking on a real-world project. It mirrors the kind of work that sits outside of the Games Industry but still provides a wealth of careers such as Architectural Visualisation and Town Planning,” David continued.

“Why just discuss the future verbally when we can use future tech?”

Cornwall College St Austell is one of just 16 colleges in England to receive a share of funding in the government’s further education capital transformation fund, and plans are now in place to transform the St Austell site into a modern, state-of-the-art college campus to meet the needs of students and the communities they serve.

For anyone interested in finding out more about studying at Cornwall College, check out cornwall.ac.uk