Nordic Game Jam (Copenhagen)

Nearly 160 game developers jammed 48 hours during the last weekend in Copenhagen at the Nordic Game Jam (and over 1600 developers around the world!). First Game Jam was arranged at the IT University in Copenhagen in 2006. This year IGDAs Education Special Interest Group got inspired by the event and machinated Global Game Jam network. Over 50 locations take part to the Global Game Jam. The theme was “As Long as we have each other we never run out of problems”. Additionally each location had additional constraints. The constraint for Nordic Game Jam was that the games should be language independent.

Copenhagen had the biggest game jam with nearly 160 participants. People competed in two categories: Bring from Home and Global Game Jam. At the Bring from Home it was ok to bring a game that is 99% finished as long as they work develop, improve or polish the game during the weekend. The theme for the Bring from Home track was humor. The idea at the Global Game Jam track was to just show up with or without a team. The event would start with a brainstorm and group creation session.

The biggest winner of Nordic Game Jam was Make my Head Grow (Denmark). It won best audio, best visuals, innovative controls, audience award at the jury’s award. At the Global Game Jam track In One Piece puzzle game won the audience award and Sheep Away got the jury’s award. Petri Purho (Kloonigames) won the most innovative game title with his 4min33sec which was a tribute to John Cage’s avant garde piece 4´33” from the 1970s. 0 - - 0 had the best audio at the Global Game Jam track and Chopper + tank = bees won for the best visuals.

I think Unity could also be listed amongst the winner because Unity was probably the most often used game development tool at NGJ. Check out what type of games were developed during the weekend.