Nordic Game Jam 2007 Website

Last updated on February 13th 2007.

Welcome to the Nordic Game Jam website.

Nordic Game Jam 07 took place at the IT University, Copenhagen (ITU) February 02-04 2007. It was arranged in cooperation between IGDA Denmark, ITU and Diginet Øresund.

12 games in 48 hours

Nordic Game Jam was held for the second time in Copenhagen January 2007 with 80 participants, which is twice as last year. People came primarily from the local game industry and the IT University, more people than last year came from farther away. We especially had a good share of participants from Aalborg and the south of Sweden..

The participants were divided into twelve teams Friday night according to personal interest and the activity level from there on was high: The participants created 12 playable games in 48 hours!

Theme

This year, we had setup 5 criteria; out of which each game had to adhere to at least 3 of them. The criteria were:

Had to contain a reference to Nordic culture ( eg. stories/art/design/music).
Had to have more than one way to complete the game (eg. negotiations / kill all).
Had to contain H2O in some form (water/ice/steam).
Had to have a time limit.
Had to be playable with one hand.

Compared to last year, this years' criteria was much less mechanical, however they were also much more specific. Last years' theme was to “create a prototype of a cooperative multiplayer game”.

It must be emphasized that there were no expectations concerning a final product which meant that placeholder graphics, missing features as well as small and large bugs were to be expected. However, the game should preferably be easy to play and illustrate the fundamental game play.

Screenshots and game concepts

BLOBBLY BLOB BOB

BREATHING MAN

BUBBLICIOUS

DRUNK STAR REVOLUTION

DUALOIDS

GOVERNATOR

ICE MAZE

O2

SHAR CRY

SNOWSCAPE

BAHH - THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD

TILE JAM

Report

As stated earlier, the event lasted for three days. Click on the links below, to read the report for each day.

DAY 1 - THE BEGINNING

DAY 2 - HARD AT WORK

DAY 3 - THE RECKONING

Feedback Panel

A panel of experts gave feedback to the teams on Sunday evening:

Christina Schou Christensen, DR
T. L. Taylor, ITU
Erik Robertsson, NGP
Sahid Butt, SLAP-DK/SLKS
Kjartan Vidarsson, Deadline Games
Rune Vendler, Game developer

The panel also functioned as a jury in the internal NGJ competition - and declared "Shar Cry" to be the winner. There was also an audience choice award, which was won by the team behind "The Lords are our Shepherds".
However, the main purpose of the weekend was to get to know each other, have a great time and to unfold creative talents.

Finishing Session

Tools

The first day also included introductions to XNA Studio, Unity and Hammer.

Next Year

With the incredible success of the Game Jam in 2006 and now 2007, we will definetely hold another event next year again. The date has not been set yet, so return frequently to be sure you get the announcement.
Please mail Gorm for issues regarding dates, registration, sponsorship, questions about the event, whatever, etc.