CalmDownTom is proud to support the Global Game Jam (24th to 26th Jan) as an official sponsor and media partner of the Scottish Game Jam.
The Scottish Games Jam was the largest in the UK and last year the sponsorship partners included Channel 4, Guerrilla Games, Denki, Ludometrics, and more. As well as working with these great companies, there was extensive coverage in the media including Develop, Gamasutra, SquareGo, CalmDownTom, ScottishGames.net Channel 4 and Sarcastic Gamer. This year the event is even bigger with more registered participants than ever before!
Here are some of the videos that were produced in previous years:
The Glasgow part of the jam will be taking place at Glasgow Caledonian University’s modern and well equipped Saltire Centre building. The event has become a marquee event in the Scottish Games Development community.
This year we are providing prizes for the competition including games, T-shirts and other promotional material. We will be podcasting from the event and streaming live video footage as well. When we did this last year, it attracted well over two thousand views a day, but with more than 200 competitors in Glasgow alone, we expect far, far more this year. Oh, and we will be running a Nidhogg tournament too!
Writing about games is easy. It really is. Our job is simple, but making a game isn’t. It’s hard work, and every year I am amazed at how much a talented team can achieve in just 48 hours. I can’t wait to see what they come up with this year!
Oh, and I’d just like to thank Supergiant Games, Paradox Interactive and NIS America for sending us some amazing prizes this year!
More about the Game Jam comes from Glasgow Caledonian University:
The Scottish Game Jam has gained an international reputation and demand for places is high at GCU and Abertay, where the events will be held simultaneously. GCU and Abertay are fully booked with 200 people registered to take part and a further 50 on the waiting list for a place.
Brian McDonald, GCU’s Programme Leader and Lecturer in Games Software Development: “This is going to be the largest game jam Scotland has seen. With jammers across the world logging in excess of 700,000 hours and creating more than 3000 games last year, the popularity and growth of the Global Game Jam is incredible and we are delighted that our students are part of it.”
Thirty-nine games were produced in Scotland during the 2013 event, including Lub vs Dub which was recently named pick of the week by Starbucks. Students, designers and industry professionals will join forces at the events working round the clock to complete their projects within the 48 hour time limit.
David Farrell, Games Design Lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian said: “If demand for our local sites bears any relation to global demand, this could be the largest technology event the world has ever seen.”
Co-coordinator Romana Ramzan Player Champion at Denki added: “We are thrilled by the response. This is by far one of the most exciting events in the games calendar.”
Dundee site coordinator and Lecturer at Abertay University, Ryan Locke said: “Abertay University is proud to be part of Scottish Game Jam for the second year running. Game jams provide a unique learning opportunity and a chance to really test creative and technical flexibility. We are looking forward to seeing how our students and the Dundee development community come together to forge innovative ideas in such a short time.”