As you’ve no doubt seen, registration for SGJ 2013 is now open!

What else do you need for a Game Jam once you’ve got your Jammers though? Well that would be volunteers to help run the show.

Volunteering at events like the Game Jam is an excellent way to get an insight into the industry if you aren’t feeling quite like taking part in the Jam yourself yet. First year students in particular can benefit from the experience of seeing how professionals and more senior students work under the pressure of the Jam.

We need volunteers to help with set up on the Friday, all the way through to the award ceremony on the Sunday evening. There’s a space on the form to enter your availability, so if you have an idea of when you’ll be available, let us know.

We’re also looking for volunteers to help run a new Game Jam in Edinburgh, so if you’re thinking about volunteering, but Glasgow seems a bit far flung for you, why not register your interest for Edinburgh instead?

Just fill out the form here to let us know you’re interested.

If you’ve got any questions regarding volunteering, drop me an email at edroy2000@gmail.com and I’ll help out as much as I can.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Emma

To register please click here

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.

Young Carers – their play preferences

 

Centre for Design Innovation Brief

http://prezi.com/blmhtksdfuvy/game-jam-2/

The Jam kicks off at 14.00 on Friday 3rd August 2012 and finishes at 19.00 on Sunday 5th August 2012

Attendees/Fee

This event is totally free and open to anyone over the age of 18 with skills in game design, development, art or audio.

Catering
Dinner will provided in the form of pizza, with cakes making an appearance later in the evening.

Sleeping
This is a 48 hour event, Game Jam veterans will know that there are sofas available in the Saltire Centre, or if you’re feeling flush there are plenty of hotels in the area.

Venue
The event will be hosted in the Saltire Centre in Glasgow Caledonian University . A central location,  you can find us here.

We’re strictly limited to 120 developers, so please be sure to register early by filling in this form

Nominees for Best Art

Your Own Worst Enemy?

Taffy’s Sweet Bunny Dreams

Shplem

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Winner – Best Art

Shplem

Download and play the game at:

http://globalgamejam.org/2012/shplem

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Nominees for Best Tech

Past Life

Space Scape

Shplem

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Winner – Best Tech

Space Scape

Download and play the game at:

http://globalgamejam.org/2012/space-scape

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Nominees for Best Design

Graveyard Baby Hospital

Outbreak

Game Over – weP weP

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Winner – Best Design

Outbreak

Watch a playthrough and download the game at:

http://globalgamejam.org/2012/outbreak

Congratulations to all the winners and everyone who took part in the jam this year!

 To play all the games from this year, go to http://globalgamejam.org/og/games/16908/list

Visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottishgamejam1/ to view photos taken throughout the weekend.

As Scottish Game Jam 2012 prepares for launch and descends into a flurry of designing, coding, drawing and creating, we’d like to take a moment to remind you of Global Game Jam: $8 Hours of Persistence, Programming and Pizza at Scottish Game Jam, a book written by games writer Jon Brady all about last year’s Scottish Jam. Global Game Jam follows Jon as he keeps track of five very different teams during the Jam, monitoring the successes and failures they encounter during the weekend and watching their games come to life.

The book also includes some useful development advice and hints and tips for the aspiring Game Jammer, and it makes for entertaining reading as Jon’s irregular sleep pattern gets the better of him.

Global Game Jam is on sale now on Amazon for £9.99 at this link: http://amzn.to/tN71IF

It is also available on Kindle for £6.89 here: http://amzn.to/tdg3UT

Welcome To Scottish Game Jam 2012!!! 

 Romana Khan – Co Organiser

Romana is pursuing a Ph.D in Exergames at  Glasgow Caledonian University. Alongside her  Ph.D, Romana is one of the key research staff at  the eMotion Lab and also works as a freelance  usability consultant.

Romana can often be found globe trotting,  obsessing over all things containing the word  cake and is a football fanatic.

Twitter: @manak

 Dr. Jon Sykes – Co Organiser

Jonathan is a senior play researcher at  Glasgow Caledonian University. He is director  of eMotionLab, a premier research facility  which offers both consultancy and development  services in the area of game production and  play-testing. Skilled in the design and  evaluation of the play experience, the focus of  Jonathan’s research is the application of  emotional play technologies to pursued uptake  of positive behaviour, primarily in regard to  health and wellbeing, and lifelong education.

Both a psychologist and usability engineer, Jonathan’s work is very much player-centred, and focused on the player experience. He has worked with Microsoft’s Game User Research group to develop player-centred approaches to game design and evaluation, and written academic papers and text-book chapters on the subject. He also works as a senior lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University where he delivers undergraduate courses in both player-centred game design, and emotional game design.

Twitter: @jonathansykes

 Jon Brady – Social Media Guy  

Games writer, spare-time movie reviewer, @7bitarcade contributor,  published book author on Scottish Game Jam no less, and toy flogger in his  spare time.

Twitter: @jonfaec

Emma Droy – Media Manager 

Super organised, Emma is our new Media Manager. She makes sure that all of our messages get out – including streaming, photos, videos…. the lot. Welcome to the team Emma.

Twitter: @pretzelhead_

 Jai Singh - All Around Helper Extraordinaire 

Jai is a second year student at Glasgow Caledonian University studying Game Design.