Tag Archives: Global Game Jam

Global Game Jam – Talks and Advice!

This past September we hosted a night of talks on the topic of game jams, and with Global Game Jam this weekend in it seemed right to share them again with you all! Here is some advice for both participants and organisers, as well as some words from a team who decided to develop their idea further after the Global Game Jam.

First up was new board member Steven Taarland, talking about his experiences in organising Rainbow Jam ’16. He discusses some of the issues he faced regarding organisation, getting sponsorships, promotion and more.

Next was the winner of several of the Play Party Awards: Team Curvish. They spoke about how they came together during the jam and developed their game further after the play parties, including showing Curvish at EGX Rezzed, sourcing funding and how they plan to bring the game to market.

Finally Brian McDonald spoke about the Global Game Jam, his experience in helping to organise it as a site and as a board member, and several tips for people looking to take part in not only them but other jams.

IGDA Scotland at GDC

IGDA Scotland was well represented at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco. Current Abertay undergraduates Jess Hider and 2014 graduate Zoe Sams were both selected as winners of the new IGDA Foundation Intel Scholarships, which gave just thirty women a once in a lifetime experience to attend the conference, offering invaluable networking and mentoring. The initiative with Intel was launched this year in association with the IGDA Foundation to help promote and support diversity in the industry.

Jess Hider

Jess Hider is an undergraduate Computer Arts student at Abertay University specialising in animation. Her recent project, Seek – created with Team Five Pixels – not only won the Artistic Achievement Award at last year’s Dare to be Digital, but went on to win the TIGA’s Best Student Game award in 2014 and BAFTA Scotland’s New Talent Award in Games. Seek is available in beta on Android and soon to be fully released on iOS.

Zoe-Sams

Zoë Sams is an aspiring programmer and technical artist, currently studying for an MSc in Computer Animation and Visual Effects at Bournemouth University. She graduated from Abertay University with an honours degree in Computer Games Technology in 2014. Currently, Zoë is volunteering with the Bournemouth University Games Development Society, organising workshops and talks.

Congratulations to Jess, Zoë and all the other 2015 scholars. For more information about upcoming IGDA Scholarships, please check here.

Brian McDonald

Jess and Zoë weren’t the only ones touching shoulders with the gaming elite in San Francisco this year. Our very own board member, Brian McDonald, was awarded a full access pass to GDC as a Global Game Jam VIP. Brian has been regional organiser for UK & Ireland for the last 2 years, before that he was one of the organisers for the Glasgow site.

Scottish Game Jam 2013 – Play Party

Earlier this week, IGDA Scotland held our first meeting for 2013, beginning as we do every year by inviting teams from the Scottish GameJam to showcase what they created in the intensive 2 day event held at the end of January.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Typing With Friends

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.

LvD_3

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.

HuntTheWumpus

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!