Summary
I love to attend game jams, especially the Global Gamejam which I’ve succesfully attended every year from the first time I’ve entered. These events are a great moment to expand upon your skills and try something you’ve never done before. Below I will list a few games we made and what my roles during these jams were.

2016: Rituals of Life
The Rituals of Life is a social commentary on the perceived importance of smartphones in our daily lives. In the game, players must navigate a path while swiping, clicking, and scrolling through notifications and cues on their phones. As they focus on avoiding obstacles in the game, the view becomes increasingly distorted, encouraging players to look down at their phones rather than ahead. Upon reaching the end of the level, players receive a score based on their performance, calculated by the number of notifications and cues missed and obstacles knocked over.

The theme of the Global Game Jam 2016 was “Rituals,” and our team aimed to create something absurd and funny that also touched on themes from daily life. By thinking outside the box and avoiding cliches and tropes, we were able to develop a simple, creative, and enjoyable game that earned us first place in the Jury Award by Microsoft who invited us to showcase our game in Amsterdam.

As a game designer, I have always been interested in expanding my skills and trying new things, and game jams provide the perfect opportunity to do so. For this project, I focused mainly on art and design, but also contributed to programming efforts when scope creep threatened to derail our progress. The tight deadline and time frame of the game jam forced me to be efficient and resourceful, and I am proud of the result we were able to achieve.

Details

• Date: January 2016
• Status: WIP
• Engine: Unity3D
  
  

2017: Trumpede
Trumpede is a thought-provoking arcade-style game that was created in just 48 hours during Global Game Jam 2017. With its timely themes of immigration and border control, the game serves as a social commentary on the way people view and approach these complex issues.

In the game, players control a car belonging to the Symmerian border police, tasked with fending off waves of Dramarican refugees by flinging typical Dramarican items at them. The goal is to keep the refugees at bay for as long as possible, but if the player becomes submerged in the waves of refugees, the level ends. Players are then presented with a score based on their performance.

As a game designer, I am always seeking ways to use my craft to comment on social issues and engage players in meaningful ways. Trumpede is in a way a testament to my commitment to this goal.

Details

• Date: January 2017
• Status: WIP
• Engine: Unity3D