Moray Game Jam returns for 2015
Game jams have fast become a perennial highlight on many social calendars and last year the practice made its way to the Scottish Highlands via the inaugural Moray Game Jam 2014. Its success has opened the way for a second weekend of condensed gaming goodness, to be held over 48 consecutive hours between Friday 20 and Sunday 22 March at Moray College UHI in Elgin.
The set-up is as simple as your average Mario Bros. plot, with teams of up to five people tasked with designing and developing a video game within 48 hours. Last year's winners, Power Punch from Abertay University, went on to work with local developers Hunted Cow Studios in order to flesh out their title Vaccine, an opportunity that will also be awarded to winners of this years’ competition.
On the flipside of the gaming coin, a competition for teams to develop a board game will also run concurrently, with mentoring on offer to the winning team from California-based Victory Point Games. Alan Emrich of Victory Point will provide a class on board game development whilst videogame industry experts versed in software packages such as indie favourite Unity will provide similar presentations.
Applications from professionals and students within the field of games are open from today, Friday 13th February, until 11th March via www.moraygamejam.com whilst all presentations will be open to members of the public free of charge. Fear not if you’re more of a solo gamer than an online party player as individual entrants will be grouped up via a ‘bespoke dating service’. Love may be a losing game, to paraphrase the late Amy Winehouse, but Moray Game Jam 2015 could well be a win-win for aspiring developers out there.