Ready, Player One?

1. The Man Behind Mario

Mario was actually named after the landlord of Nintendo’s first warehouse, Mr. Mario Segale. The original name for Mario was Mr. Video Game which ended up becoming Mr. Segal’s nickname. Mario’s character has actually appeared in over a hundred and twenty video games.

2.  The Idea of Pac-Man

The creator of the famous Pac-Man, Toru Iwatani, actually got the inspiration for the game while eating a slice of cheese pizza! In an interview, Iwatani told the reporters that he has looked down at the pizza with a missing slice and used the outline as inspiration for Pac-Man's distinctive shape. Pac man then sold 350,000 arcade machines within 18 months, generating millions in profits and became an international phenomenon.

Fun Fact: 3,333,360 Points Is the Maximum Score You Can Get In Pac-Man.

3. The Cinderella Law

South Korea, which has one of the richest online gaming cultures in the world, tries to battle gaming addiction that has led to serious consequences. As a result of which, the government blocks all those under the age of 16 from accessing gaming websites after midnight. This is also known as the ‘shutdown law’ or the ‘Cinderella law’.

4. Assassin’s Creed: Where You Kill Real People

The game takes historical accuracy very seriously, in fact too seriously. The background plot of Assassin’s Creed is thought out in such a way that most of the key characters the players have to kill off in the game were real people who died during the year that the game takes place by different bands of assassins. Pretty intense, right?

I Need More Skin in the Game!

1. Round One - Shark Tank

In Quad 4 of Shark Tank witnessed an interesting set of pitches as all start-ups put their best foot forward to convince the sharks to invest in them at the lowest equity and maximum benefit possible. Sharks Sia Aggarwal and Akshat Jindal represented Snap deal while Tanvi Goyal and Ananya represented Trell and the People Group. The first company, FEEL - aims at providing formal education to students from lower-income groups by tying up with government and private schools. However, their deliberations with the sharks lead to no investment. Innovative DMS and Peizolecs pitched unique ideas to generate electricity through alternative sources and received investments. Hands-On proposed a start-up idea to provide skill-based education that our current education system lacks. 2MTS pitched to kill two birds with one stone by selling water filters and wash basins and tackling the problem of menstrual hygiene in rural areas. The team that stood out the most was AAIR organization which presented a working prototype of their product that provides a virtual eye to visually impaired people. Snapdeal scored a deal with AAIR by investing Rs. 1 Crore and getting an 18 percent stake in the company. The sharks competed fiercely with each other and deliberated back and forth with the teams.

The sharks for Quad 3 were Mr. Danish Malhotra and Mr. Purvang Dada, assisted by mini sharks Mr. Adish Samsukha and Mr. Jatin. Team Spirits’ Realm pitched their product, a Bio Gas plant that focused on the problems of the depleting soil fertility due to the usage of chemical fertilisers and on the lack of infrastructure for sewage treatment in rural areas by producing biogas, which will be supplied to consumers at affordable prices. The second team, focused on the goal of providing quality education at economical rates, aiming to eradicate illiteracy by building cyber cafes and providing the latest technology to the underprivileged at nominal rates for online education and training. All the participating teams made commendable efforts, but only a few managed to convince the sharks to invest in their start-ups. The sharks guided the teams by providing them with suggestions for the improvement of their products.

2. Round Two – Crisis Challenge

The Crisis Challenge witnessed a brainstorming session on the difficulties faced by the existing ventures and start up’s. The interactive session included many real-life anecdotes related to crisis and prepared the participant for the impending presentation. For the presentation, the participants were given a crisis scenario. This crisis scenario was supposed to be adopted by the teams and presented in the form of a PPT, focusing on the three major questions what, why and how?

From the Artists' Desk

Games are the New Normal

Aiming to provide an intense learning on various environmental challenges, the participants of the Gamification Challenge were asked to give a presentation on the problems being faced by the world and to offer practical solution for the same. They were being judged by Ms. Duhita Parmar, Microsoft Innovative Educative Expert Fellow, Skype Master Teacher and Microsoft working partner, Ms. Suman Chawla, training consultant of British council, a Microsoft learning consultant and master trainer for Child Protection, Ms. Monica Joshi, IT Head, Sat Paul Mittal School and Mr. Aditya Goyal, President-Gamification, SIF, 2019. Several teams presented their ideas on variant topics: ‘How to develop Sustainable Cities and Communities’, ‘Water Pollution created by the industries’, ‘Is it our funeral which we are planning when we cut the trees?’, ‘Life on Land’, ‘Waste Segregation’ and so on.

The challenge directed at involving participants in grass-roots innovation activities, driving them to identify questions that require innovation, identify possible solutions and try them, iterating as needed.

The teams participated enthusiastically giving innovative solutions such as developing apps to monitor wastes, taking governmental aid, conducting massive plantation drives etc. The judges congratulated the teams on having an active interactive session. The session proved to be an informative one where the youth put forward creative solutions to globally faced challenges.

The Satyan Corner

Straight from the Horse's Mouth

You Don't Know You're Being Clicked

Meet the Press & IT

The IT Department

• Ritin Malhotra

• Diya Jain

The International Press

• Mehak Bakhshi

• Krisha Mehra

• Palkin Lohia

• Romita Handa

• Harnoor Dhillon

• Sia Aggarwal

• Sannya Singla

• Sameya Singh

• Shyla Mishra

• Diya Jain

• Avni Gupta

• Gurneet Kaur

The Photographers

• Aaryan Baweja

• Eashan Arora

• Sejal Matharu