Over the coming weekend the Studio in Manchester will play host to the UK’s biggest game jam.
Jamchester, organised and run by Gameopolis, will consist of teams of 1-4 people competing against each other over one long weekend in the Northern Quarter hub.
However, unlike other gaming competitions, these teams will not be playing games against each other but rather competing to create the best game themselves.
The competition, which is mostly attended by professional developers as well as some up-and-coming student creators, starts at around 8pm on Friday night and runs without pause until noon on Sunday.
This means the competitors must work through one full day and two nights without stopping, a total of about 30 hours, punctuated of course by the occasional pizza or drinks break.
Its @jamchesterMCR day! Doors open at 7pm at @studiovenues Manchester and we’re jamming until Sunday afternoon! #gamedev #gamejam pic.twitter.com/3a8Ami4ziK
— Gameopolis (@gameopolisMCR) June 23, 2017
Usually, teams take shifts so some members can get sleep while the others work but, with teams that have at the most 4 members the pressure is on to get as many waking work-hours in as possible before judging begins.
Last year’s inaugural event saw ‘Head Home’, developed by Acid Nerve featuring Angus Dick, win best game as well as take home the best audio design award.
Meanwhile, ‘Great Wall of Trump’, a game developed by Silo Games where you play as the notorious US President and try to build a wall brick-by-brick before too many people can climb through, gained a large internet following and would go on to be released fully as a mobile game under the name, ‘Trump: The Brick-tator’.
Judging will begin at noon on Sunday with a panel headed up by Gary Napper, game director at Supermassive Games and former lead designer at Sony’s VR studio in Salford, who will decide on eight categories including best student game, best graphics and best tech achievement.
Last year’s games are available to download and play at https://jamchester.devpost.com/submissions.
Tickets for the event can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jamchester-2017-tickets-33889910635.
Image courtesy of Gameopolis via Twitter, with thanks.
