For the past 15 years, Malaysia has been an active participant in the GGJ, and this year, about 80 people gathered at the office of Xsolla, a US-based global video game commerce company.
Every year, thousands of people come together at numerous locations around the globe as part of the well-known Global Game Jam (GGJ) to attempt to create a video game from scratch.
The GGJ from last year was the longest jam in the organization’s history, lasting 10 days and nights. At 680 locations across 100 countries, a total of 33,000 jammers were recorded.
For the past 15 years, Malaysia has been an active participant in the GGJ, and this year, about 80 people gathered at the office of Xsolla, a US-based global video game commerce company.
“Game developers, hobbyists, and people from all backgrounds come together, receive a theme, form teams, and spend the next 48 hours or so creating a game,” GGJ Malaysia organiser Yee I-Van said on the sidelines of the event last weekend. Yee asserted that the GGJ’s primary objective is to promote interpersonal relationships.
Participants are free to mix and socialise because there are no prizes since it is a collaborative jam. He added that some individuals use it as a means of eschewing their jobs and producing things purely out of curiosity.
This year’s GGJ has the theme “roots,” which has many different meanings, such as family roots, a literal root, or root words. The GGJ Malaysia 2023 is organised by Curine Ventures Sdn Bhd in collaboration with Xsolla Inc. and the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).
“Events like these are ideal seeding groups for game ideas to sprout. MDEC is looking to actively support local start-ups in the creative space. “Many successful games began as a game jam idea that was later turned into a paid product. “That is why MDEC also supported this GGJ event,” said Yee.
There were a total of 22 games created, ranging from platformers to narrative adventures. By going to the official GGJ website or Itch.io, you can try them out for yourself.
Game jams, according to Yee, are crucial for both beginning and seasoned game developers because they may open doors to internships, jobs, and projects.
“Additionally, it is an opportunity for them to create a piece for their portfolio in a brief two-day period. It is highly recommended, as employers value hires who take the initiative to attend such events, ” he added.
This year, students from various universities made up more than half of the participants. For the veterans, Global Game Jam Malaysia was a fun getaway where they could create something just for fun.
“They can try something silly and just put themselves to the test,” said Yee, who also participated in the game jam and gave the other teams resources. The participants presented their games at the end of the two-day event by playing game demos and discussing how the games related to the assigned theme.