That’s right, it’s nearly time for the Scottish Game Jam 2014!
The SGJ this coming year will be held at the Glasgow Caledonian University and the sister site at Abertay University Dundee on the 24th to the 26th of January.
If you’ve never heard of the Scottish Game Jam before, well shame on you, it’s only the biggest game jam in the country and is part of the biggest game jam in the world – The Global Game Jam. Every year amazing game developers get together for 48 hours to create some truly brilliant games such as last year’s Scottish Game Jam overall winner, Lub Vs Dub.
In 2013, over 38 titles were created, from artful story telling games; board games; horror games and even a networked text adventure! But, it’s not just the creation of the games which draws people to the Scottish Game Jam. The atmosphere in the building while teams are furiously creating their projects is intoxicating and one of the main reasons people keep coming back every year. There are games to play with your fellow developers, prizes to be won, pizza to eat and great banter all round.
So if you’re feeling creative, love making games and are a little bit mad, then join us at one of the two sites in January! You’ll need to sign up at your preferred site at one of the links below!
Also don’t forget you can learn more about the Global Game Jam on their new site.
And that’s not all, following the jam, in February, IGDA Scotland will hosting a pair of Play Parties in both Dundee and Glasgow where teams can show off their games, play everyone’s games, and vote on their favourites. We’ll update you with the full details of these events closer to the time.
Last year the Scottish Game Jam had over 200 jammers in attendance making it the biggest in the UK and in the top 10 in the world. If you want to be part of what is always one of the best weekends in game development then join us at the Scottish Game Jam 2014!
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We had a record number of registrations for the event, and despite a very snowy night, we clocked around 60 people through the door in what proved to be a really enjoyable night of socialising and play, with 12 games from all three of the Scottish Game Jam sites on hand to be played.
At the end of the night, we held the now-annual awards to select IGDA Scotland’s “Pick of the Jam”, this year using a highly sophisticated and technical “clapometer” voting system. The crowd had some clear favourites among the teams that were exhibiting and expressed that loudly.
1st – Typing Together – http://globalgamejam.org/2013/typing-together
A fast and furious competitive typing game where the goal is to out type your opponents. This game also threw in some interesting additional challenges such as typing on a upside down keyboard, typing with your nose and saying aloud the incompressible word before typing.
2nd – Luv vs Dub – http://globalgamejam.org/2013/lub-vs-dub-ipad
A lovely little 2 player iPad game where you and the other player have to run on a line while avoiding the spike of the heart beat. The winner of the game is the player which collects the most hearts, seems simple enough but there are various special items such as ice which will thwart your opponents ability to control his character.
3rd – Hunt The Wumpus Global Edition – http://globalgamejam.org/2013/hunt-wumpus-global-edition
Another multiplayer game where the goal is to hunt and kill the elusive Wumpus. In this game the players navigate a text based adventure environment by issuing the classic NORTH, SOUTH, WEST and EAST commands. The player with the most Wumpus kills is the winner.
You can play these games and more from the following links
Dundee – http://globalgamejam.org/sites/2013/sgj-dundee/games
Edinburgh – http://globalgamejam.org/sites/2013/sgj-edinburgh/games
Glasgow – http://globalgamejam.org/sites/2013/sgj-Glasgow/games
Congratulations to everyone who took part in the jam, but of course special congratulations to our winners, who get to proudly claim that they are Scotland’s Pick as best of the Game Jam!
]]>When – February 13th 19:30
Make sure you register through Eventbrite!
The Global Game Jam takes place this coming weekend, and our local organisers are the aptly named Scottish Game Jam. Now in its fifth year, the SGJ has grown to encompass not just the original site at Glasgow Caledonian University, but also venues in Dundee and Edinburgh. In total, more than 200 people around the country will be taking part in what promises to be the biggest and best jam yet. The problem is, with the jammers spread all round the country, how can we come together as a community and enjoy each other’s games, and of course determine which game is the Best in Scotland!
Who better than IGDA Scotland to help with this? As we did last year, we’ll be hosting the “Game Jam Play Party”, allowing everyone to get together, have a chat and play some of the games that have been created during the jam. This is a great opportunity to check out what some of the aspiring (as well as established) game developers of Scotland can make in just a limited time. You can catch a recap of the 2012 event here.
We’re also going to be using this to try a slightly new addition to our events that we’ve seen work very well for other chapter – the “Open Mic” announcements. If you’ve got something to say, whether it be a reminder about an upcoming release or a job vacancy, you can reach everyone at the meeting in one go during this quick-fire period.
Please don’t miss out on the start of our meeting schedule for 2013. Make sure you’re registered through Eventbrite, and don’t forget – Feb 13th, Admiral Bar in Glasgow!
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Hello everyone! Your friendly neighberhood ig-da (that’s how they say it in Glasgow!) checking in with news from our Scottish Game Jam Play Party. Which was a total blast!
We’d like to thank all the teams and developers that brought along their laptops and let us get them all smudgy playing the games they worked so hard to finish at this year’s Scottish Game Jam.
The IGDA set up the Play Party initiative as a way to let participants of the global game jam share and discuss their work in an informal and relaxed manner, after the initial jam had taken place. We thank everyone who was able to attend Scotland’s first ever Play Party, and to the Scottish Game Jam organizers for their support and awesomeness-in-general.
We hope you had fun, and if you didn’t get the chance to come round, don’t worry, you can still try out the games created at the Scottish jam sites for free. Can you collect them all??
We have a line up of all the games right here for you too, aren’t we nice? Some were made in Glasgow, and some were made in Edinburgh, and we hope we can continue to support the Scottish Game Jam nationwide in a number of manners.
IGDA Scotland’s Top 4 Play Party Games (as voted by play party attendees)
The Entire Glasgow Collection!
Game’s from Edinburgh Napier’s first GGJ!
Panel-Tastic
In addition to some stellar uber-experimental games, we also had a great panel session with industry veterans, game jam newbies, and industry commentators. Put them all in the same place after a couple of pints and you have something far too explicit to put on the IGDA Scotland blog. A big thanks to Dave Sapien, Jon Sykes, Phil Harris , Emma Droy and Kieran Nelson for sharing their insights and honest opinions on the jam. Nothing, nothing at all, was held back…
So you’ve played the games, read the blogs, and you think that you yourself might be able to give it ago? Cool! The next Global Game Jam isn’t until January 25th-27th, so you have plenty of time to hone your skills and sharpen your debuggers. Keep an eye on the IGDA Scotland and SGJ blog for details in the future on how to apply for next years jam site in Scotland!
In the mean time, we’ll keep working on spreading the game developer love around this bonnie wee land. Our next stop will be in Edinburgh (some time after GDC in March) See you there!
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When: Wednesday, 8th of February
Where: The Admiral Bar, Glasgow
Register Free on Eventbrite Now! (Space Limited)
Last weekend was huuuge… Like… Crazy…
So crazy that we decided to dedicate a weeknight to celebrate how crazy and awesome it was. What are we talking about? The Global Game Jam of course!
IGDA Scotland will be hosting a fabulous GGJ Play Party, and we want YOU – the developers and participants to come along and have a bit of fun sharing and discussing this year’s blowout line up of games. We had two Jam sites in Scotland with over 130 participants making 26 games in 48 hours. This is amazing showcase of work done by the game development community in Scotland and just shows what you can do in such a short space of time.
Join us, play some games, discuss the highs and lows of taking part in the Game Jam!
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