If you read our last post about Coffee Stain Studios, you’ll know how game jams with no limits can bring to life the most unexpected and peculiar game concepts. However, what if the game jam already had a target market and audience, sort of a theme if you will? Wouldn’t that increase the chances of coming up with something more relevant and consistent?
I’ll give you a theme for a game jam which you probably never though about: Create new gaming concepts for the Arabic speaking markets within and outside Sweden.
If that tickled your curiosity, you might want to visit Malmö for the weekend, where the Arabic Game Jam Workshop will take place on the 23-25th of May.
Organized by Media Evolution and held by a Concept Artist Intern at Ubisoft Massive, the event will take a look on how to create a game in just four hours; since it doesn’t take a professional developer to know that games aren’t perfected in a matter of four hours, in addition to the coding the event will see several speeches by a colourful bunch of gaming experts.
While the Arabic Game Jam itself might be quite a small scale round-up, and the fact that no previous programming know-how is required to participate also tells us something of the possible outcomes, the jam’s theme remains a true point of interest.
The Arabic world is a vast but curiously unknown place to most westerners, but especially in cities like Malmö, this barrier is slowly crumbling away.
The MENA (Middle-East North Africa) region contains more than a few new and emerging markets. However, the countries in this region are culturally rather different, which means companies aiming for those areas really need to do their homework. Game developers need to pay more attention to culturally appealing content, which can play a significant role in the eventual reception of the game, so what better way to do this than to set up a game jam driven by this objective?
Three of the participating teams will be chosen and given a chance to develop their concepts further. They will have a shot at being published through the newly started publishing house Play3arabi, with the Middle East as home turf.
The jam starts on Friday (tomorrow!) with opening speakers, food, and grouping. There on it’s non-stop game development! There will be professional coaches helping the teams on the way and also ”inspiration-corners” where everyone can go and get inspired. At 3.30 pm on Sunday afternoon, the teams will pitch their new concepts! After that there will be dinner and the closing ceremony.
Participation is free and you can still apply here.
