Game Hacks and Game Jamming sessions are a big boost when it comes to Indie game developers pushing their boundaries of creativity and delivering games under the given time span. Build Your Own Game (BYOG), NASSCOM’s own game jam had game developers from India and around the globe gathering on a single platform to develop games within 48 hours over the weekend.
The game jam was available for all, irrespective of who you are and where you stay. Experienced game developers and students alike can participate in the event.
This year, BYOG has 12 themes out of which the three most popular themes were selected through public voting. The voting began a week ago with more than 250 people ‘having voiced their choice’ among the different themes. The themes which were put out to choose were interesting and rather quirky. Three themes which got the highest votes were: Time, Gravity and Infinty. Others from the list included: Teamwork, Immortal, Greed, Trust and Russia among others. Yes, you read it right Russia! BYOG is all about being experimental. How you experiment and how you interpret the themes depends on you.
Game development can be anything ranging from a complicated 3D game to a simple text based game. Whatever game one is making, the participant has to ensure that the game is relevant to the theme.
BYOG took place over the weekend starting from 9-12 October with participants having to submit their games on the official website. These games will now be judged by a panel of juries who will then select top 5 games which then be featured at NASSCOM Game Developer Conference (NGDC), which is going to be held in Pune from 5-7 November. These 5 games will again be judged at NGDC and the best game will be awarded.
Last year’s public voting has been discontinued this year but don’t be disheartened as anyone can still play the games by visiting the website and give feedback for the games. This will not only help the game developers but also give them a boost to even out what people felt was missing from the game.
Events like these will be a big boost to the individual game developers especially Indian game developers wanting to showcase their talent globally, and with BYOG 2012’s winning game – Project Heera being nominated for a BAFTA award, this goes to show how much talent is coming out of these game jams.
A total 44 games have been submitted on the BYOG website with close to 200 people participating to create these games. “Last year, 27 games were submitted with over 90 people participating in BYOG 2014. The quality of the games has grown over the years and it is going to be tricky to select 5 games from these 44,” informs Kinshuk Sunil, organiser for this year’s BYOG.