Rob Lloyd has been celebrating with his former Dimension 10 colleagues after winning the coveted prize of Best Interactive Media award at the 2008 Ffresh Festival, held annually in the coastal town of Aberystwyth, Wales.

The Ffresh Festival showcases and celebrates the work of talented students currently studying in Wales and Rob, along with former D10 students Tom Garne, Gareth Gwyther, Nic Finch and Carol Wilkins, fought off a wide range of competitors from across the country to take the Best Interactive Media award for their online game Orball.

Created initially for the Malaysian gaming company Mygo Solutions in Kuala Lumpur, Orball is about a little ‘smiley face’ who has a penchant for bouncing around donut shaped arenas and switching on lights with his head. Speaking about the production of the game, Rob said: "We worked closely with the creative team at Mygo, accommodating geographical, cultural and time differences. It was a challenging project but nevertheless exciting."

Orball was developed last year when the award winning group was studying on the Dimension 10 course for a postgraduate diploma in Interactive Media. Run by Welsh training provider Cyfle, Dimension 10 is a six month course offering trainees the chance to gain real industry skills by learning from experienced industry practitioners.

"We are both pleased and honoured that Ffresh has recognised our work. Orball is an instantly fun and addictive game," said Rob. His comments were echoed by the judges at Ffresh who felt that Orball’s ingenuity had a mischievous spirit and was instantly captivating as well as showing a real understanding of the project's target market.

Picture: Rob Lloyd and Tom Garne