The Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) hosted the Invercargill Global Game Jam over three days at the end of January. The fun and collaborative event produced six new games.

The Global Game Jame is an international organisation that started in California in 2008 and attracts participants from all over the world.

In 2020, the event had 934 sites in 118 countries, all adding to the body of work in gaming.

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In Invercargill, gamers united onsite or online at the SIT Downtown campus in Don St during the last weekend in January (29-31).

The venue was fully equipped with all the hardware and software needed to complete any project the game developers could dream up.

SIT's animation game design programme leader Rachel Mann has facilitated the event for the last three years and was pleased with the results and growth in the 48-hour, game-making fest.

“We have grown in that time from making one game in the first year, to making six games this year, five of which you can get on the internet,” she said.

The event provides opportunities and numerous positive flow-on effects, she said.

“Activities like the Global Game Jam foster learning, collaboration, building working relationships, friendship, and more. It’s fantastic for the camaraderie.”

An image from a game created at the SIT Global Game Jam in January. IMAGE: Supplied

During the intense game-developing weekend, students collaborated to design a game, make the assets, code the game, make all the artwork/images, and test the game to make sure it worked.

The process provided a platform for innovative thought and growth in skills, Rachel said.

“It’s an enormous amount of work to achieve in 48 hours."

Communication was key as participants carried out the group work, she said.

“They learn skills off each other, they’re forced to learn how to work with each other to achieve the game. It’s a good opportunity to network, they all want to do future collaborations.”

Participants who couldn’t make it to campus were able to take part online and played an integral part in developing games they were involved in, Rachel said.

“We had people on-site and off-site and they all had to be on the same page, even though they weren’t all in the same location.”

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Anyone can attend the annual event. Most attendees this year were former, current or future SIT students. 

Some students had cut their summer holidays short and returned early to campus so they could participate, she said.

Rachel Mann also facilitates the Invercargill Game Developers Meet-ups, held regularly in the city

These were a chance to meet and catch up on news in the gaming industry as well as hear the occasional guest speaker or present experiences and knowledge to the group, she said.

Building a community of like-minded people provided friendships, idea sharing and opportunities to collaborate, she said.

Gaming was no longer seen as confined to teenage boys in their bedroom, playing into the wee, small hours. It was much bigger and broader than that, touching many areas of life, and the technology benefitted contemporary communities in a multitude of ways, Rachel said.  

“A whole infrastructure exists in New Zealand for the industry and it’s growing at a fast rate. It’s a very exciting career move with endless possibilities in a rapidly advancing sector, and it can be applied in so many ways.”

“We’re a little part of this huge thing going on world-wide, and we’re putting our work out into the global community".  

Check out the games made at this year’s event HERE.