Beat Step Cowboys wins Intel University prize for best gameplay.
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The DeanBeat: Intel University discovers the best college game projects

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 7 min

Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Wisconsin Stout won the top honors in the annual Intel University contest for best student game at the Game Developers Conference. The contest is a good place to spot the talent for the next generation of games.

Carnegie Mellon won the prize for best gameplay in a national bake-off that pitted students from 12 college teams with student game projects. The Carnegie Mellon team created a zany title called Beat Step Cowboys, a turn-based game where two cowboys duel on a pseudo chess board.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.