Game Anglia Sponsors Global Game Jam 2018 at University of Suffolk
How can you get a job in the games industry when you don’t have the required experience, but companies aren’t willing to give you the chance to get it?
Taking part in a game jam is an excellent way to kick start your game making career. Game jams are a gathering of people for the purpose of planning, designing, and creating games within a short span of time, usually between 24 and 72 hours.
This year marks the tenth year of the Global Game Jam and the sixth year that the university have hosted a venue for it in Ipswich. Game Anglia are proud to have sponsored the speakers for the 2018 Global Game Jam site at the University of Suffolk from January 26 – 28.
Attendees joined over 15,000 participants in 500 locations around the world for the annual event, which was a resounding success!
The Global Game Jam takes place in the last Saturday of January every year and sees a specific theme sweeping around the globe as the announcement is released and game developers around the world get cracking making a game based on the theme over the course of the weekend. This year’s theme was Transmission.
The computing labs at the university feature 78 high tech PC’s running a variety of game development software including Unreal, Unity and 3DS Max.
Food and soft drinks were provided!
Participants are tasked with producing playable games in just 48 hours and can work individually or in teams.
As part of the event, the University of Suffolk also put on a series of talks from experienced game developers such as UOS graduates Joe Kinglake from Sumo Digital and Bradley Smith from Miracle Tea as well as Tim Nolde from Criterion and Simon Vickers from Cloud Imperium Games. The event saw a excellent turnout with over 70 registered jammers.
Heather Bishop, a UoS BA Computer Games Design student stated, “Making games alongside so many other developers was an absolute blast. I learned a great deal from the jam and even more from the great speakers”.
At the end of the weekend the participants uploaded their games to the Global Game Jam website where anyone can now play them! You can check out the fifteen games that were finished at the University of Suffolk over the course of the 2018 Global Game Jam here. Not all games that were started got finished but taking part not only hones your skill as a game developer but is more often than not exceptionally good fun!
If you’ve never made a game before then now is the perfect time to try by picking a game engine like Scratch, Game Maker, Unity or Unreal to help you get started and then maybe you can test out your game development skills at the Global Game Jam 2019!
Images courtesy of Steve Harris Images
