Global Game Jam is the world’s largest game creation event taking place around the world simultaneously, but at different physical locations. A weekend long 48 hour event where you experiment, create and develop games or skills. Think of it as a hackathon focused on game development. The structure of a jam is usually that everyone gathers on Friday late afternoon, watches a short video keynote with advice from leading game developers, and then a secret theme is announced. All locations worldwide are then challenged to make games based on that same theme, with games to be completed by Sunday afternoon.
Florida International University was one of the locations for Global Game Jam 2018. Hosted by the VR Club and UPE, both clubs at FIU, GGJ18 invited over 60+ students and received over 12 projects. The projects included an Amazon Alexa walk through game, Rick and Morty AR Portal, and multiple platform games that where designed in the span of a weekend.
At the jam there where also workshops on Unity and Unreal Engine which equipped the students with the tools necessary to make any game they wished. Apart from the development side of Global Game Jam, there was a Super Smash Bros. tournament which left the winner with a $25 gift card from Amazon. These extra activities gave students a chance to step away from developing and enjoy themselves at the jam.
And the winner is ….. “Level Up My Dude”.
First place: Level Up My Dude
“Dudes spawn at your base every 6 seconds. Transmit an attack direction for your dudes to attack other bases. Killing makes you money, but so does dying! Use money to upgrade your dudes (health, speed, damage, spawn count). Win when there are no enemies left. 2 players or 4 players”. Learn more
Second Place: SummerSet
“Walk through game, but instead of text based, it’s voice based. It’s a complete alexa skill that you can interact with to get a story where you journey to escape from an evil Alexa”. Learn more
Third place: Galactic Scavenger
“A charming sci-fi game where your minions have scavenged food for you, but have sent out a signal for help. You must send out drones to scout for them and bring them back to your ship. But be careful not to encounter the hostile creatures that live on the planet!”. Learn more
