No winners were announced when the Global Game Jam concluded on January 31 after students spent 48 hours racing against the clock to develop a new game.
Rather, collaboration was key for game students and alumni alike who took on the challenge of the world’s largest game creation event from Jan. 29-31.
While NC has been a ‘site’ for the Global Game Jam since 2016, this was the first year the College hosted the event virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The gathering took place on the Discord server rather than its traditional location within the game labs of the Welland Campus however, the goal remained the same. Students had a chance to work together, build a new game for their portfolio and hone their technical skills in the process.
The event drew about 40 students and alumni from the College’s Game Development and joint NC-Brock Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Game Design and Bachelor of Science (Honours) Game Programming programs.
After gathering on Discord for the kickoff at 7 p.m. on a Friday evening to hear the official 2021 Global Game Jam theme announced – ‘Lost and Found’ – participants broke off into 10 teams where they would spend the next 48 hours developing their game. In the end, 10 games were created and posted to the Global Game Jam website.
Game professor Tom Brown, who has been organizing the event for NC each year, noted that he felt that the virtual format this year – as game students study remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic – was a success. One of the most valuable aspects for participating students was the opportunity to network with the program alumni who joined the students for the event.
“Overall, I think the networking aspect went really well,” he said. “At the end, many of the participants were chatting and checking out each other’s games in different chats and one big chat at one time.”
The NC students and alumni were among 28,000 game creators in 104 countries at 585 virtual sites around the world to participate in the 2021 Global Game Jam. This year’s global event resulted in 6,000 new games created.
Global Game Jam is operated by an international non-profit corporation founded in California. For this year’s online event, teams from around the world may participate in any 48-hour period between January 27-31, 2021. For details visit globalgamejam.org.
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