20/11/2025
A year ago, during the first Level Up challenge, we failed to secure a spot in the top 3 (we came up short and placed fourth). Undeterred, we jokingly said — next year we’ll stand on that stage and win this thing: one last dance — one last fight.
Despite having to juggle thesis, impending doom, and a ton of constraints, we took it upon ourselves to commit our lives’ work to a single moment. Flash forward 24 hours from now: we did it, we made it, and now we can confidently say we kept our promise.
We are not fans of big speeches, but it’s timely to thank the people behind this team.
Jansen — the guy that literally rewrote an entire working decentralized game server into a centralized one all because he didn’t want the game crashing after a minor disconnection. You, one heck of a developer, chose not to sleep just to finish the project when the rest of us shut down. Thank you for writing the entire game and carrying us throughout the competition — you may now sleep eight hours a day.
Luen — this guy also doesn’t sleep; he sends finished trailers and videos at like 4 AM. Editing skills: 100; Meme skills: 100; Art skills: 101; Voiceover skills: 110. Absolute champ for making the poster, game characters, videos, and voiceovers.
Gab — thanks, man.
Clinton — oh yeah, this guy is also another dev. Remember those really loud and obnoxious power-ups? Blame this guy. Those merge errors? Also him. By the way, he created the power-up system, so that’s one thing we can thank him for. Also some of the cringe memes — yep. And yes, the animation, music, and sound design — thanks.
Gabriel(a) — our dedicated no-sleep-all-work lead artist. Yes, the “(a)” is a meme — the organizers once mistakenly thought he was a girl. If you like our game art, thank this guy. He taught himself pixel art just because we asked. He spent countless hours drawing sprites we sometimes didn’t even use (we will eventually, but not this time). He is probably the most unhinged team member; if you think sending outputs early in the morning is bad, he sends 10 memes in between all those files. We would’ve used open-source or sloppy game characters if it weren’t for you — really appreciate it.
To our coach, Sir Eloi — ! (we could have still done it without you). P.S. this is a programmer joke: "!" negates the statement that comes after it. To our no. 1 meme hater and fan: the only guy who insanely agreed to support a team of four child-minded adults, the guy who straightened our could-have-been-taken-down content for our game. The guy that always had our back and became one of us, sir — we won, yes we won. He also said he’ll cry himself to sleep every night knowing his favorite group of students, who are as close to giving him a migraine, are about to finish their college journey.
To those who asked at the venue, “When will we release this thing?” — well, the game had more bugs than the movie where the plot revolves around the main character waking up as a bug: "Spiderman" — oh sorry, "Metamorphosis." So, maybe not now but, like last year, "soon" — something close to "GTA VI coming soon."
It was a heck of a ride, but it was a fun one.
— Mangken Studios —
BangSak: Water Rising
