Tech duo to represent SA in Microsoft Imagine Cup

Of Dragons and Sheep by Digital Interactive Games

The Imagine Cup is a global student technology competition that provides opportunities for students around the world, across many disciplines to team up and use their creativity, passion and knowledge of technology to create applications and games that have the potential to change the way we live, work and play.

The SA student team, called Digital Interactive Games, consists of Jason Cross and Nicholas Jordaan. They came up tops in the local leg of Imagine Cup thanks to their game entitled Of Dragons and Sheep. In this fast paced 3D sidescroller game, the hero must save his beloved sheep from the vicious dragons. The tech duo will compete against 34 other teams at the World Finals.

To get to this point, more than 150 top teams from national finals events made it through to the world semi-finals, where they were judged by a global panel of MVPs, industry experts and Microsoft staff. Only 35 teams from those 150 made it through to the world finals as their games and solutions were the best or simply the most compelling projects.

At the World Finals, the remaining teams will compete to be crowned as the champions in their respective categories and the chance to win $50,000. Then, one team will go on to win the coveted Imagine Cup and the grand prize, a private mentoring session with Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella.

“Reaching the world finals is a fantastic achievement by this team and shows that South African talent is able to compete on any global stage,” says Peacemaker Dlamini, acting director: ICT and services industry, from the Department of Science and Technology. “Science and technology can play an effective role in addressing the challenges faced by young people and their communities. The department has supported the competition for the past five years and will continue to support initiatives that enable more young people to come up with these kinds of solutions and become entrepeneurs.”