With this year’s theme “Lost and Found,” the Gamers Union for Innovation and Leadership Development (GUILD) spearheaded the annual Global Game Jam (GGJ) last Jan. 28-31, welcoming both Benildean and non-Benildean game developers from across the country and from different parts of the world through online means.
Known as the largest gaming creation event, GGJ aims to gather game developers where they could share their creative ideas and skills along with other participants. This also gives them an opportunity to meet fellow participants to jam along through video games. Since this year’s event was held virtually, online platforms such as YouTube and Discord were utilized by the participants and the organizers to have a smooth flow throughout the three-day event.
During the opening program, participants were reminded about the rules and guidelines discussed to provide a safe space. They also exhibited a preview of last year’s game jam and the messages of GUILD’s adviser Mr. Johndale Alfred Julian and GUILD’s President Joshua Dela Vega. Other participants were given an ample time to form a team, consisting of 4-9 members, to create their own video game with this year’s theme.
Aside from having participants challenge themselves in creating their video games, they were also given the opportunity to interact with fellow participants by facilitating games such as “Among Us,” “skribbl.io,” and “Jack Box” during the first day of the event.
In an interview with The Benildean, third year Interactive Entertainment and Multimedia Computing student Dela Vega shared the organization’s challenges in hosting the event online, such as live streaming and engaging online with the participants. Despite the circumstances from the preparations and facilitating the three-day event, GUILD pushed through with the annual event alongside the other organizations online “to keep holding the GGJ tradition of Benilde strong and [organize] a site for Filipino Game Developers” and “reach out further” to Filipino game developers, according to Dela Vega.
“[GGJ core organizers] were able to consider the pandemic throughout the whole world and compromised to keep everyone safe at the comfort of their homes,” he further explained.
He also expressed that there’s more for the participants in the GGJ event than simply getting awards from their contest, “even when we have awards and winners, GGJ is not a competition at its core, it’s more of a collaboration of enthusiasts sharing their work with one another.”
Creating “Lost and Found” into gaming
The event held its closing and awards ceremony last Feb. 5, wherein 25 game entries submitted by different teams were shown. Each game gave the judges and audience a glimpse of how the teams took the challenge of creating their own game based on this year’s theme.
Awards were also given to teams who won versus the other games through the People’s Jam Awards:
Game of the Jam (GOTJ):
Third place - Path of the Abyss: Cursed Ascension by Team Abyssal Instinct
Second place - Clockwork by Team Meta Minds
First place - Soul Mate by Simulacion Games
Judge’s Choice Award:
Third place - Split by Team Jammers in Pajamas
Second place - All For a Damn Key by Team BenzaiTeam
First place - Path of the Abyss: Cursed Ascension by Team Abyssal Instinct
In an interview with The Benildean, Game of the Jam winner Simulacion Games’ Jake Loyd Bugante shared that their team only joined the jam for the first time this year and expressed that they weren’t expecting to win any awards. With Valentine’s Day in mind, they decided to build a “love-related” game that still fits the theme. They also shared that time was their biggest challenge, since they had to balance their classes and thesis while making “Soul Mate.”
Meanwhile, Abyssal Instinct’s designer and artist Elisha Ramos shared that their team has been joining the Global Game Jam since 2014. Prior to the winning concept of “Path of the Abyss,” they "always had the idea of making a “hack-and-slash, action RPG in the veins of “Diablo,” “Path of Exile,” and “Torchlight.” With that, their final piece circled around these games “but in an extremely limited scope and with a unique twist,” according to Ramos.
With this year’s theme, the team admitted to struggling during their game’s design phase more than the implementation.
“On a surface examination, the theme “Lost and Found” can be naturally translated into a maze game, a puzzle point-and-click, or a puzzle platformer—all of which we were not really keen into making for this jam,” Ramos shared. The team also struggled on how to incorporate the theme to “a heavily-designed genre like an ARPG (action role-playing game),” and deciding which elements of this genre they are going to leave out “but still get the point [of the game] across.”
Currently, the team is planning to develop the game further and release it someday. They are now “discussing ways on how to expand the game in a meaningful way and more closely to the genre while keeping the main “Lost and Found” mechanic intact.”
For gamers who might be interested in playing these games, you can checkout and download the games at Global Game Jam 2021 Benilde’s website.
