They designed a game and all they got was Curt Shilling's Handshake?

38 Studios, the game development brainchild of baseball star Curt Shilling, recently held out a contest to local game school students to make a game featuring their little green mascot, Munch. The winners, three students from Becker College, made Munch's Vacation - a mario inspired side scroller in under a month. Not bad at all, and they did at least get more than a handshake.

Strategy and skill earned three college juniors a firm handshake from Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. The students from Worcester's Becker College recently won the first-ever Massachusetts Game Challenge hosted by 38 Studios, a Maynard-based media and entertainment company that Schilling founded in 2006. The contest called on students in the growing academic major of video game design to take a crack at inventing a game starring the company mascot, a little green monster named Munch.

The top three finishers in the contest, which aims to promote 38 Studios to young talent entering the gaming industry, won prize money and the opportunity to have their games featured on the company website, 38studios.com. While the games will not be mass-produced, Schilling and his team at 38 Studios hope it will encourage the young designers to apply for a job down the road at their growing company.

"The Boston area is a growing hotbed of game development," Schilling said. "This contest encourages students to demonstrate their talents, as well as raise awareness of what it takes to release a product into the competitive video game industry. We wanted college-age kids going into the video game industry to know the best career for them is right here in Maynard."

For the full story, and to see what prizes were, check here.