The start of the New Year 2022 for Epiphany and its gaming effort, Epiphany Games, could not have been more dramatic and energetic, as the organisation launched it off with Developers’ Game Jam 2.0 on January 10 with its typical zeal and vigour.
The Australia Awards – Pakistan Small Grant Scheme helped to fund this year’s Developer’s Game Jam 2.0.
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The Gamestorm Studios and ConsoliAds, Epiphany’s long-term partners and sponsors, kindly offered PKR 100,000 in prize money to the top three teams, as well as USD 2,700 in advertising and user acquisition credits to the top ten teams.
Developers’ Game Jam 2.0 featured over 100 applications, 16 teams, 11 workshops, 21 industry mentors, 13 games, 5 publishing partners, 10+ community partners, and ProPakistani as a media partner. The session came to a close with plenty of laughter, learning, active feedback, and (oh, so many!) hyper-casual game ideas.
Foodies Are Us
The two-week event began with an orientation session, during which the theme for this year’s event was revealed. Just as the excitement of jamming was building, the game theme for this year’s developer’s game jam was announced to be “FOOD,” much to the joy of the participants!
11 Fun, Fact-Filled Workshops
Shibli Mansuri, the founder of Yes & Games, also spoke about “Game Jamming 101” as a mentor. He talked about game mechanics, how to make winning game components, and how to collaborate as a team.
During the workshop, when answering questions from the audience, his insights and decade-old tech knowledge had a huge impact.
After the subject was revealed, there was an explosion of interesting game ideas and energy flowing within the group as people began to warm up to each other on the second day.
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As much as young gamers require encouragement, their creativity must also be steered in the right direction! As a result, on January 11, Khaya Ahmed, Writer at Sumo Digital, led the “Putting on Your Thinking Cap” session.
She gently explained the art of game conceptualization while discussing the multi-dynamics of game narrative and storytelling. Soon after, Shaun Ansari, CEO of Reality Forge, and Muhammad Hadi, Unity 3D Instructor at Game Train, co-led “Introduction to Game Engine,” which covered the two most popular game engines, Unity and Unreal.
Ansari discussed the obstacles that game jammers face, as well as the benefits, complications, and best practises for using these platforms.
The two facilitators also presented separate workshops titled “Using Unity to construct hyper-casual games” and “Learning about Unreal,” in which they provided a deep dive into the two platforms, as well as a hands-on demonstration of the tools and features that jammers may use to make their games.
With a history in teaching and training, both facilitators were able to make the sessions incredibly engaging and answer to the audience’s probing inquiries.
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The goal of the game jam was to come up with innovative and intriguing gameplay elements in a short amount of time and with smaller teams.
Speaker Warda Rashid – Producer at Big Immersive – gave procedural training on how to convert a game idea into an ACTUAL GAME in a workshop titled “Game Design Fundamentals” to speed up game conception. A live game design document was also prepared by the teams.
“Presentation of HC Codes” by Ekaterina Dekalenkova, a business developer at Ketchapp @Ubisoft, was one of the most enjoyable and audience-engaging sessions, where she explicitly discussed the factors to keep in mind when creating a successful hypercasual game and the top current HCG trends in the market.
She also gave honest criticism on the game concepts proposed by the teams.
Other useful workshops included Shakil Awan’s “How to Pick an Art Direction for Your Game,” Shaun Ansari & Ahsan Khan’s “Designing a Player Journey,” Nahyan Farooq’s “Narrative Game Writing,” Tuçe Kurulday’s “Analyzing Trends in Hyper Casual Games,” Asad Mahmood’s “Non-Disruptive Monetization for Gaming,” and Moin Jawaid’s “In
21 Mentors Extended Their Expertise
Apart from the workshops, the participants had access to 21 amazing minds from Pakistan and overseas who kindly shared their knowledge and skills with the teams across two weekends.
The Winning Games!
Friends of Epiphany and Epiphany Games, the greater games community, as well as the teams, mentors, facilitators, and judges, gathered for the Developers’ Game Jam 2.0, which finished with a friendly, close-knit event. The session came to a close with plenty of laughter, learning, active feedback, and hyper-casual game ideas.
This year’s judges included Jean-Baptiste Henry, Tapnation’s Publishing Manager, Ashley Luo, Ketchapp @Ubisoft’s Business Development Analyst, and Arsalan Bhalli, Mindstorm Studios’ Creative Director.
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The “Food Hunger” team was proclaimed the winner of the “Crazy Rider” game. The second prize went to team “Codeblooded’s” “Stall Steal,” while team “Alpha’s” “Food Planet” took third place. By popular vote, the game “Potion Cure” by team “Sunfly” was named the fan favourite.
Developers’ Game Jam 2.0 sharpened the game craft of a large number of young game lovers, who generated original and playable games that you can see and play here.
Please try them out and let us know what you think! Epiphany is appreciative for all of the support and constructive comments it has received, and it hopes to see you again in the future, particularly for the next Game Jam in Quarter 2 of 2022.
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