Graphic by Michael Hunter and Peter Wood

UAL alumni Michael Hunter and Peter Wood graduated from their LCC-based courses in the 2025 academic year. They achieved master’s degrees in Game Design and Animation, respectively, but the project they developed for their final submission wasn’t abandoned. Rather, they kept working on it, won a TIGA Games Industry award, and were even featured at EGX in October’s London Comic Con – a meteoric event welcoming over 100,000 guests twice a year.

The name of their game is Contact Protocol. It’s an investigation-type game best described as Papers, Please, but with the aesthetic of Ridley Scott’s Alien. Set aboard a rusty spaceship, it tests your morality and decision-making skills by forcing you to follow strict corporate rules, blowing up other starships that don’t have proper paperwork.

It’s expected to be released in 2026, but pre-alpha playtesting is now available to all readers of The Pigeon! Simply go to this website. The password to access the page is ‘jones’.

All fingers are crossed for these graduates to have an easy development free of crunch time and to bring home even more game awards for LCC. Wish them luck!