The start of the New Year 2022 couldn’t have been more eventful and hyperactive for Epiphany and its gaming initiative, Epiphany Games, as the organization kicked it off on January 10 with the usual enthusiasm and verve with Developers’ Game Jam 2.0.
This year’s Game Jam 2.0 for developers was supported by Australia Awards – Pakistan under the Small Grant Scheme.
Epiphany’s long-term partners and supporters, The Gamestorm Studios and ConsoliAds, generously offered a PKR 100,000 prize pool to distribute among the top 3 teams, and $2,700 in advertising and user acquisition credits for the top 10 teams, respectively.
Developers’ Game jam 2.0 included 100+ applications, 16 teams, 11 workshops, 21 industry mentors, 13 games, 5 publisher partners, 10+ community partners and Webeysas its valued media partner. The event concluded with lots of fun, learning, active feedback and (oh so much!) hyper-casual game ideas taking center stage.
We are foodies
The two-week event kicked off with an orientation session to unveil this year’s theme. Just as jamming escalates to exciting momentum, the game theme for this year’s developer’s game jam was revealed as “FOOD”, much to the surprise entrant’s delight!
11 fun workshops full of facts
Shibli Mansuri, founder of Yes & Games, also appeared as a mentor to talk about “Game Jamming 101”. He discussed the intricacies of game mechanics, producing winning game components and efficient teamwork.
His insights and decades-old technical knowledge proved extremely impactful during the workshop, as he tackled questions from the audience.
As the individuals began to warm up to each other on the second day, there was a deluge of exciting play ideas and energy flowed within the group after the theme was unveiled.
As much as the young gaming enthusiasts need encouragement, their creativity is also needed to be put on the right track! Therefore, on January 11, the “Put Your Thinking Cap” session was led by Khaya Ahmed, writer at Sumo Digital.
She discussed the multi-dynamics of game storytelling and storytelling while patiently explaining the art of game creation. Soon after, “Introduction to Game Engine” was co-led by Shaun Ansari, CEO at Reality Forge, and Muhammad Hadi, Unity 3D Instructor at Game Train, who introduced the two most popular game engines, Unity and Unreal.
Ansari described the challenges for the game jammers, the benefits and complexity of these platforms, and the best way to use them.
The two facilitators also delivered separate workshops – “Using Unity to develop hyper-casual games” and “Learning about Unreal” – where they took a deep dive into the two platforms, with a hands-on demonstration of the tools and features the jammers can use. to make their games.
Equipped with an education/training background, both facilitators were able to make the sessions highly interactive and responsive to the probing questions of the audience.
The aim of the game jam was to create new and interesting gameplay features while working around the short time frame and smaller teams.
To accelerate game conceptualization, speaker Warda Rashid – Producer at Big Immersive, in a workshop titled “Game Design Fundamentals”, provided procedural training on how to turn a game idea into an ACTUAL GAME! The teams also created a live game design document.
One of the most enjoyable and engaging sessions was ‘Presentation of HC Codes’ by Ekaterina Dekalenkova, a business developer at Ketchapp @Ubisoft, where she explicitly discussed the factors to keep in mind when creating a successful hypercasual game and the current top HCG trends in the market.
She also gave candid feedback on the game ideas pitched by the teams.
Other valuable workshops were held on “How to Pick an Art Direction for Your Game” by Shakil Awan, “Designing a Player Journey” by Shaun Ansari & Ahsan Khan, “Narrative Game Writing” by Nahyan Farooq, “Analysing Trends in Hyper casual Games ‘ by Tuğçe Kurulday, ‘Getting nondisruptive monetization for gaming’ by Asad Mahmood and ‘Introduction to Immersive Ads’ by Moin Jawaid.
21 mentors expanded their expertise
In addition to the workshops, participants had access to 21 brilliant minds from Pakistan and abroad who generously offered their advice and expertise to the teams over two consecutive weekends.
The winning games!
Developers’ Game Jam 2.0 concluded with a warm, close-knit event attended by friends from Epiphany and Epiphany Games, the larger games community, as well as the teams, mentors, facilitators and judges. The event ended with a lot of fun, learning, active feedback and hyper-casual game ideas.
Judges for this year included Jean-Baptiste Henry, Publishing Manager at Tapnation, Ashley Luo, Business Development Analyst at Ketchapp @Ubisoft, and Arsalan Bhalli, Creative Director at Mindstorm Studios.
They proclaimed the “Food Hunger” team the winner of the “Crazy Rider” game. The second prize was awarded to “Stall Steal” from team “Codeblooded”, while “Food Planet” from team “Alpha” took third place. The game “Potion Cure” by team “Sunfly” was voted the favorite of the public by popular vote.
Game Jam 2.0 from the developer has honed the game of so many young game enthusiasts who have created innovative and viable games that you can watch and play here.
Play them and leave your feedback! Epiphany is grateful for all the support and valuable feedback that has come to us, and looks forward to seeing you in the future, especially for the next Game Jam in Q2 2022.
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