We organized a Game Jam

Hi folks! Together with Loria, Inria, Inria Startup Studio, and the University of Lorraine, we organized a Game Jam: Arcade Game Algorithm! Thanks to a great team (especially Sylvain Contassot-Viver!), we spent a year preparing for a weekend-long Game Jam at the Inria center of the University of Lorraine.

A theme: space debris

The plan: a weekend to create a video game, 10 teams with nearly 60 students, and a topic drawn from a research theme: managing space debris, which is progressively increasing the risks of collisions and could, in the long term, prevent humanity from returning to space.

The students were divided into ten teams, with diverse profiles: sound designers, developers, graphic designers, and game designers. Some participants were attending their first Game Jam, while others had done dozens.

Two panel discussions on video games and research

By Sunday afternoon, the teams had to submit their games along with two presentation videos (a trailer and a gameplay video). After lunch, we organized two panel discussions for them: the first on education and career opportunities, and the second on research and innovation in the video game industry. Many guests were present for these panels:

• Maud Bleu, who works at GameForge and is a member of Women in Games
• Marine Lopes, from Quantic Dream
• Guillaume Gaudron, from Ubisoft
• Maël Addoum, from Isart Digital
• Bertrand Kerautret, from GameAgora
• Olivier Ageron, from the National School of Art and Design in Nancy
• Xavier Cavin, from Gamestream
• Louis Abel, from Dynalips
• Jimmy Etienne, from our team!

These panel discussions were a great opportunity to discuss various topics, such as the role of women in the video game industry, the connections between research, innovation, and game creation, and the diversity of careers in this industry.

Amazing games!

After the panel discussions, we got to discover the ten games produced by the 10 teams:

• Sleeping Knights with the game EarthWashers
  Two awards: Best Gameplay and Jury’s Choice!
  A very complete game with beautiful pixel art animations, which we all loved for its variety.

• Vent d’Est with the game Remora Corp
  ​​​​​​​Two awards: Best Visuals and Public’s Choice! A super pretty game (special mention for the "fancy" pink/purple/yellow colors), and a team that took the time to test the gameplay from the start of the game jam, with an amazing result and great music.

• L'attaque des Clowns with the game Waste of Space
  Best Game Design award.
  An extremely polished game with beautifully hand-drawn graphics!

• Katka with the game Waste Wind
  Best Sound Design award.
  One of the few 3D games in this jam, with a lovely spaceship collecting debris around the Earth, and great audio loops.

• Free Food Collector with the game Paper Cleaner
  Best Interpretation of the Theme award.
  A team that charmed the jury with their theme: they had the brilliant idea to use the waste and items from the different meals and snacks during the game jam as textures for the game! Well done!

• Alt F4 with the game The Last Resort
  Best Pitch award.
  A team of three developers who used web technologies to create a well-thought-out asymmetrical multiplayer game.

• Chutney Software with the game Cosmic Dustman
  A pretty technical game with a rope system where you have to "swing" using a jetpack, then return to the spaceship after catching and managing different debris.

• Les Zigomars de l'Espace with the game Zigomars Retour Station
  Another pixel art game with a parallax effect.

• Gülüg with the game Deflection
  My personal favorite in terms of originality in gameplay, featuring a two-player system where each player has a different spaceship, and they must work together to push the debris.

• Big Banging Faster with the game 2734 CATA (Cleaning All The Atmosphere)
  Another highly original pixel art game with a much darker atmosphere (almost horror-like), where you have to clean up space while avoiding getting destroyed and becoming space debris yourself.

Check out all the games on itch.io!

We would especially like to thank Sylvain Contassot, Inria (and in particular Justine Galet, Virginie Blavier, Sabrina Lemaire, Aurélie Djeradi), Loria (Marie Baron, Mariana Diaz), University of Lorraine (Mounir Tarek, Orion program, Education and Territories), CNRS, France 2030, Dynalips (Louis Abel, Slim Ouni), Inria Startup Studio, ISart Digital, GameAgora, Women in Games, Gamestream, Quantic Dream, Ubisoft, API Restauration (Floriane Marchand).

We hope to do it again for a second edition next year!