Students, graduates and professional developers working together at GGJ2018

This year’s GGJ was held at Accelerator Building in Shoreditch again – it was another exciting weekend that saw current students working alongside professionals to create games in 48 hours. This year’s theme was TRANSMISSION. We were delighted to see some of our Londonmet Games graduates there – artists Matthew Isteed, Ana Da Mota and Quoc Luu joined current students Tom Carr, Erik di Biase and Filippo Libardi at the event.

Winter Mraz and Andrew Watson during the brainstorming session

http://globalgamejam.org/2017/jam-sites/londonmet-accelerator-global-game-jam

This year’s Global Game Jam at Londonmet Accelerator is in full swing as I write this post.  The theme is WAVES, released on Friday evening.  Concepts have been discussed, teams have been formed and everyone is calmly working on their games, fuelled with pizza and pop.  The twitch livestream can be accessed from the site link, pictures on flickr below…

Artist Andrew Waton works with our student programming team – David Harper, Erik Di Biase, Filippo Lipardi, Dimitri Xitas and Alex Limbrick

Team photo

Erik, Dimitri, Ana and Quoc worked tirelessly all weekend at this year’s Global Game Jam, hosted by Londonmet at Accelerator.  They were part of a team developing “A Clowny Day”, inspired by this year’s theme: RITUAL

http://globalgamejam.org/2016/games/clowny-day

Tyanah leads Werewolf game

The jam kicked off on Friday evening with a keynote and the release of the secret theme, then some brainstorming and ice-breaking with Londonmet Computer Games Programming graduate Tyanah Graham, who reprised her role as Mistress of Werewolf.

Then it was down to business, as teams began to work on their ideas and settle in for a hard night of digital work.  Some of the jammers stayed overnight, sleeping on the floor – 48 hours to make a game requires a lot of stamina!

On Saturday, graduates Ashley Mackenzie and Chris Newsum visited the site to meet new students and talk about their careers since graduation.  Ashley is a lighting expert, currently working for Cloud Imperium Games while Chris works at Rocksteady Studios, doing game testing.

Chris and Ashley talk to Ana, Dimitri and Quoc

We also had a visit from Gorm Lai, one of the founders of the Global Game Jam, luckily captured on our twitch live stream…

The jam wound up on Sunday, when teams had to upload their final games to the GGJ site by 3pm.  We did some play-testing and a show-n-tell, hearing how everyone had approached the theme.  With over 40 participants, it was a busy, exciting weekend and some awesome games were produced – check out all the GGJ games here: http://globalgamejam.org/2016/jam-sites/london-metropolitan-university/games

Programmers hard at work

Creating some art

In production

Next year, Londonmet is one of the official hosts for the 2016 Global Gamejam, taking place in Shoreditch from 29-31 Jan.

The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the world’s largest game jam event (game creation) taking place around the world in physical locations.

“The weekend stirs a global creative buzz in games, while at the same time exploring the process of development, be it programming, iterative design, narrative exploration or artistic expression. It is all condensed into a 48 hour development cycle. The GGJ encourages people with all kinds of backgrounds to participate and contribute to this global spread of game development and creativity.”

If you’d like to join in, please register at the official site or via our EventBrite page!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/global-gamejam-2016-at-london-metropolitan-university-tickets-19671490959

Check out pix from the 2009 GGJ, held at Londonmet:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/thinkmakeplay/albums/72157613294689027

Brainstorming

On Tuesday 22nd September, Londonmet’s team of toy-makers and hackers took part in the first ever ToyJam, organised by Toy News as part of the Inventor’s Workshop.

Concept art

The team consisted of Games Programmers  Zion Siton, George Anderson and Dimitri Xita with Games Modelling and Effects students Winter Milek, Quoc Luu and Robyn Sarah Andrews.

The brief was to design a new social toy or game for their own generation, and they came up with PingPlay.  The judges commented that our team had the best concept!

Inventor’s Workshop is an annual conference aimed at new toy designers, which brings them together with industry professionals to hear about new innovations and pitch ideas.

http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/news/news-stories/university-news-2015/september/toyjam/

Pitching the idea

The team on Monday morning

Zion Siton, Alex Owen, Ashrakur Rahman, Michal Chmielewski and Andrew Braid – this year’s Londonmet team at the Brains Eden 48 hour Gamejam at Anglia Ruskin University, July 2014.  The team developed “Scramble”, writing their own physics engine in Actionscript.

48 hours later…

Londonmet team hit the Brains Eden Gamejam on 28th June, ready for 48 hours of designing and developing in Cambridge.  This year’s team was Max Morris, Marcus Oldfield, Alex Owen, Fergus Murphy and Harry Corke.

The theme was “mountains” and their game was “Dwarficide”, link to follow…

Follow the team’s progress at http://beardedbadger.com…

The first XX GameJam, in association with Ada Lovelace Day and London Games Festival, took place in Mind Candy offices on Oct 26 and 27, 2012, sponsored by UKIE. The theme was “Clockwork”.

Second year Games Programming student Nikki Gordon’s team came second with “The Dastardly Carillon” developed in Unity … Nikki created all the sound effects using Reason.

Fiona French mentored one of the other teams, helping to develop “Tick Tock Terror”.

Press: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20186937