Computing students create Brodie Castle interactive game

The HNC students were tasked with creating programs in the Python programming language which would reproduce a scale version of Brodie Castle in Minecraft.

The students were working from floor plans of the building and endeavoured to produce rooms to scale, recreating the interior where possible from photographs of various rooms. Even the surrounding roadways and landscape were captured where possible to ensure a high level of detail.

Some of the teams opted for a team death match approach, while others included a puzzle element such as collecting a number of blocks found in chests in difficult to reach locations, or by placing a certain number of blocks at a specific location.

As part of the Computing course the seven HNC teams presented their projects to Mhairi Ross from the National Trust Scotland at Brodie Castle and Eleanor Hayward a Volunteer guide at Brodie Castle. Anna Templeton, College Quality Officer and Computing lecturers Gillian Bain and Graham Wilson, were also in attendance.

Graham Wilson, Computing Lecturer at Moray College UHI said: “We were very impressed with the level of detail for each of the games created. The students really enjoyed using a local historic landscape as a backdrop, capturing the castle while still using their creative license to produce these interactive games.”

Moray College UHI (BA) Interactive Media students also were involved and produced two prototype applications for Brodie Castle. One application allowed visitors with mobility issues to experience a virtual tour of the castle. The second application aimed to engage younger visitors to the castle focusing on the castle history.

The teams used footage filmed at Brodie Castle as video content for their prototypes. The BA students demonstrated the applications working on various mobile devices to Brodie Castle visitors.

Find out more about our Computing and IT courses staring in August/September 2016.