Crack open the energy drinks and break out the laptops, because the Global Game Jam is once again returning to Abbotsford later this month.
This international competition brings up-and-coming game developers together to put their skills to the test and create a new game from scratch in a very short period of time.
The University of the Fraser Valley has been the site of this competition for Abbotsford for the past couple of years and will once again play host to the teams of developers for their 48-hour mad rush to bring a game to life, starting on Friday, Jan. 24.
As part of Global Game Jam, small teams of tech-savvy people work together to plan and create a new game – either a video game or board/card game – following a different theme each year and in a very limited amount of time.
This is the third year that UFV has hosted this event, with a wide variety of games emerging from the Abbotsford school in the past couple of years.
The following games are products of previous UFV Global Game Jam events:
• Decks of Fate (2024) – This 2-D video game pits players up against a variety of enemies as they use a turn-based card system to emerge victorious in the mystical animal-filled world.
• Rootroute (2023) – The maze platformer puts players in the shoes of an amnesia-stricken protagonist who is trying their best to avoid countless enemies while also collecting bits of memories to regain their lost knowledge.
• UProoted (2023) – The all-ages physical card game attempts to show people the fun side of agriculture as players compete to be the first one to lay down all of their crop cards.
• Root Odyssey (2023) – Combining board and card game elements, this physical product tells the story of two small maple seeds named Saplin and Sunni as they attempt to find their way back home after accidentally falling deep underground during a storm.
• Getting to the Roots (2023) – This 2-D role-playing game has competitors navigating a complex tree system as an ant, with the goal of safely travelling from the ant colony at the top of the tree to the safety of the roots at the bottom.
UFV is not the only Global Game Jam event in B.C., with four other cities – Nelson, Kelowna, Vancouver, and New Westminster – also confirmed as hosts of competitions this year.
While most Global Game Jam products don't ever get published on major gaming platforms, a few of them have found some notable online success.
Here are a few of the most popular video games to come out of Canadian Global Game Jam events:
• Life Goes On: Done to Death (Edmonton, 2012)
• Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime (Toronto, 2012)
• Starwhal (Ottawa, 2013)
• Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (Ottawa, 2014)
The upcoming Global Game Jam at UFV takes place on Jan. 24 and 25, with the school students, staff, and faculty able to participate in the event by visiting globalgamejam.org.
