This weekend saw the Saltire Centre at Glasgow Caledonian taken over once again by a wide and wonderful variety of designers, programmers, artists and audio techs. The difference this time however, was that they were making games for young carers, not just the fun of it!

The games were intended to help young carers escape the responsibilities of their roles for a while, allowing them to unwind and socialise. The jammers were given their brief (which can be viewed here), and split off to start some initial ideas. They then pitched to each other to form their groups, and set to work on the development of games.
After 48 hours of work, these are the results:

Mostro

In this game, you play as Mostro. Using the mechanic of swapping between a good and evil world, in which Mostro has different abilities and interacts differently with his environment, you advance through the levels and collect drops of paint to restore life and colour to a desaturated scene.

Sniffing it Out

A Networked co-op game, Sniffing it Out sees one player direct another around a maze to collect treasure. The directing player has a full view map of the maze, while the second player can only see a small portion of the map. The game is intended to improve teamwork and trust amongst young players.

Creative Comic

Creative Comic allows the player to customise their character and its companion before playing the game. They then go on to play through the 3D levels, where they can collect more costumes. Players can change their characters costume at any time during the game.

QUARTER BRAIN

A team of two programmers produced this puzzle game.

dragonrize

This side scrolling platformer has the player battle their way through the level, collecting all the dragon parts and finally assembling the dragon and opening up a new section of the game where the player flies through the sky on the dragon’s back, fighting enemies along the way.

At 3pm on the Sunday, the Young Carers arrived to play and rate the games. Booths were set up in the Saltire Centre, and refreshments were enjoyed while Carers and Jammers alike had the chance to mingle and play the games.

After an hour the results were in. The scores were announced in two categories, one from the Young Carers, and one from the teams themselves, and totalled live on screen.

The Results

YOUNG CARERS’ CHOICE

The best game as voted for by the Young Carers was…a draw! Equally impressed by Creative Comic and QUARTER BRAIN, the Young Carers had spoken, and the two teams were delighted to share the honour.

CREATIVE COMIC AND QUARTER BRAIN

JAMMERS’ CHOICE

So what did the Jammers have to say for each others games? Well the winners by a fair margin was, once again, QUARTER BRAIN! They invited one of the artists, Gabriela, to share in their prize, as she had offered her services in the art department, whilst still working with her own team producing Mostro!

QUARTER BRAIN

We want to say a huge thank you to the SCT&T for collaborating with us on this new venture, to the Young Carers for getting involved and helping inspire the participants, and of course to the Jammers themselves, for working around the clock to create these brilliant games. Hopefully we’ll see you all in January for our regular Scottish Game Jam!

The weekend was superbly documented by the legendary John Flitcroft.