Introduction
Thanks again for what is now a sixth GGJ jam, it continues to be a challenge and a learning experience. The next Global Game Jam happens 31 January to 2 February 2020! You can visit https://globalgamejam.org/2019/jam-sites/malmojamstoo to see the games submitted this year
You can hop straight to the statistics or the awards we have below. (The statistics have moved to their own page).
Big big thanks to Tarsier Studios and Game Habitat for helping us out in sponsoring and supporting us! Without you both it would have been a lot tougher to make the event even happen
The site approval process was swift this year with Global Game Jam which we were glad for, though our overall logistics such as location and sponsorship were quite late in the arrangements. It’s a balancing act that we sometimes just cannot really control, but we did feel relieved things weren’t too stressful
We took some opportunities this year as the newly established location for Game Habitat made for a well-situated place for food. It was also an obvious choice of venue as it is purpose-fitted towards the event in general, not to mention that we fit very well together and they have supported us in previous GGJs in the past. So it really was a pleasure to continue working with them
Logistics and planning
Poster preparation was slightly later than usual, even if it was started earlier. It was quite hard to pull off in a timely manner as we had some uncertainties with arrangements from the start. We may start two versions of the poster and plan it’s creation better for future jams
We implemented a barcode check-in which potentially identifies jammers for event purposes. A mishap with the registrations concerning dynamic spreadsheets prevented us from enabling the above system further though. But it did make for a very quick and easy way of identifying jammers! We’ll continue trying to improve the check-in process with this idea in mind
This year we’ve streamlined our registration form and it’s resultant spreadsheet (again). We have some ideas to make it even less demanding, doubled with looking to automate registrations and event member handling
We tried Facebook boosting for a week longer than what we had last year. Unfortunately it seems that it would have been a better investment to have kept the boost the same as last year considering it’s reach this year if we look at how we fared previous years
What we did find as a welcomed change were the invite cards and the Discord check-in sheet. Though very minor things they did add that little bit extra (personally in any case) and felt like it complemented the jam experience
This year’s poster was a little special, and we’ve taken steps to improve it’s presentation and break out from the usual format we had from years back. This new direction makes the event clearer to those who are new to game jams and us. As per usual we still try to challenge ourselves to show something new and try something different, this time sporting an arcade cabinet which has more vector artwork than our (previous) penguin poster
The Discord stays strong this year, and the announcements and other communications went through without a sweat. One amendment we did was to collect most announcements into a super announcement at the beginning. Makes it easier to look for the information if it’s in one place. This year we also started with giveaways to keep participants engaged in some way to the chat. It was kind of an experiment where we requested those who won to retrieve their keys physically from us at reception. It was received rather well, so we hope to continue with the same next jam
The game show went as usual. We allowed it to happen a bit more haphazardly than having a dedicated area, but in a way it allowed jammers to wander around the space a bit to mingle and chat, which was more important than presentation. The negative effect from doing so though was that we spent more time with the cleanup after the jam ended
Here are your games
Below you can find the groups, games and our award titles below. This year we will forgo certificates (we plan to revamp them so look forward to that update later)
Patata Games was awarded “the reflective fox” for When you lost your home – Beatriz R., José I.
Court of Three was awarded “a desirable outcome” for The Corrupt Council – Linus A., Joshua C., Nina S.
Scuffed Productions was awarded “eye see what this is” for Sticky Situation – Viktor J.
Snurkelspring was awarded “one button hell” for Snurrspring – Berk G., Gustav J., Per M., Emil H.
Pun’d It! was awarded “has a nice ring to it” for Opening Up – Torsten H., Jaffar S., Jasmin S., Job Z., Samanta M., Martin S.
Mechyboiz was awarded “a sluggish snailien” for Mechyboiz – Oliver D., Johan W., Victor J.
:potato: was awarded “i thinky n floaty” for Keepsake – Amanda R., Robin A., Emilia L., Fernando V., Samantha B., Artjoms N.
Colourful Socks was awarded “let’s start a cult!” for Home Is Where The Hearth Is – Anders T., Joschka P., Tristan L., Mattias L., Stefan J.
Team Bateia was awarded “best laid plans” for Domestic – Jill P., Nils M.
Team ferzona was awarded “death don’t part us tho” for DEATH DO US PART – Rattanun K., Gabriel H., Max M., Martin A., Noel T.
Overall this run was quite alright really. From the numbers we see that overall participants have increased but we have a slight decrease in repeat jammers from last year. Interestingly we had some jammers who have registered for jams in previous years but have not come until this year! Another factor which affected our outcome greatly were certain other nearby jam sites
In any case, the fancypants infographic below helps detail some of these insights along with quick summaries from previous years
Couldn’t get enough photos? Enjoy this slideshow of some of the (like, 30) other action shots we took
