With the final round taking place at the Microsoft Campus on Monday, let’s take a closer look at our three Rising Star finalists for 2014; Milcho Milchev, Sam Parras and Sammy Hosny.

Out of over 90 initial entrants, these three second-year students have excelled through the first two stages of the competition to earn their place in the final.

Milcho Milchev

About myself, you’ve probably guessed that I hold strong passion for games. I am mostly a PC gamer, but I dip into the mobile market from time to time. Creativity and innovation is what I value most in a game. Games like ‘The Stanley Parable’ I enjoyed playing immensely. As far as genres go, I like playing strategy and puzzle games quite a bit. ‘Starcraft 2’ is one of my favourite games.

Outside of making and playing games, I like books. There are some amazing authors out there, whose books I really, really like. I even made a text-adventure, just because I thought (and still do) that media in the form of text isn’t obsolete at all, just not being presented in the right way.
Milcho Milchev

University of Hull
BSc Computer Science w/ Games Development

Second Round Game Development Project :
Gemolution

Download Gemolution from Windows 8 Phone Store

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Judge’s feedback on Round 2 project

“Good work all round.”

“One of the best games in the whole competition.”

“A well-deserved place in the final”

Sam Parras

I’m a big fan of first person shooter games that incorporate RPG elements. Some of the recent games I’ve enjoyed the most are Far Cry 3 and Borderlands 2 but my all-time favourite is the first game that I ever got “addicted” to when I was a kid, Pokémon Yellow.

Apart from playing games, I also spend a lot of my time teaching myself game development and software development in general. Music is also very important to me and I’ve been playing drums for the last 8 years.

Sam Parras

University of Bristol
MEng Computer Science

Second Round Game Development Project :
AlienHeads

Download AlienHeads from Windows 8 Phone Store
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Judges Feedback on Round 2 Project

“Fantastic! The whole game is great.”

“A very deserved finalist.”

“Probably the single most polished entry in the competition.”

Sammy Hosny

I’ve been an avid gamer since I could get my hands on a controller, and programming for almost just as long. Right now I’ve become an addict of any games that combine a mixture of RTS and first/third person elements, but I like to think I have become attached to games from most genres at one point or another.

Outside of this, I like to play guitar and go rock climbing, and also do some freelance reverse engineering.

Sammy Hosny

University of Bristol

Second Round Game Development Project :
Idempanel

Download Idempanel from Windows 8 Phone Store

Judges Feedback On Round 2 Project

“Really fun gameplay.”

“Very unique.”

“Excellent, in my opinion one of the best games.”