Excuse the clickbait title but we’re referring to the insane participation for this year’s Global Game Jam.

This annual worldwide event brings together elements of creativity, collaboration and experimentation. Professional developers, hobbyists, students, and tinkerers all gather together for 48 hours to form small groups to flex their creative muscles to make new and innovative games, and then present them at the end.

Jammers getting comfy at MDEC’s Level Up Incubator in KOMUNE, Bangsar South.

This year on the final weekend of January, there were 42,800 jammers who made 8.505 games at 803 sites in 108 countries! Malaysia itself was host to 3 of those sites. The first was organized by International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Malaysia Chapter which was coordinated by local developer and chapter coordinator Shawn Beck. This was held in MDEC’s Level Up Incubator at the KOMUNE in Bangsar South.

Jammers briefing at KDU Glenmarie.

The second was held at KDU University College, Glenmarie and organized by KDU Game Development and Mygamedev. The third was organized by GameDev KK under Sinn Chun Hou and was held at Smart Space which was the only site on the Eastern part of Malaysia. Altogether, Malaysia contributed 36 games made by 139 developers! The largest number so far for a local game jam!

The theme this year was ‘Transmission’ and jammers started gathering on a Friday evening at their respective Jam sites. Once the theme was announced, they had limited time to develop and propose their ideas to convince teammates to join their projects.

Jammers in Smart Space KK warming up.

Once the teams were formed, the jam starts straight until the final hour where the teams would have to each present the game that was developed. The best part of each game jam would most definitely be the spirit of collaboration and camaraderie that is developed over the weekend. There is nothing better than groups of creative people coming together to create content for the sheer pleasure of doing something different.

Wanna test the games? 

Click here for games created in Level Up Inc.

Click here for games created in KDU Glenmarie.

Click here for games created in Smart Space KK. 

Besides the Global Game Jam, Gamedev KK also organizes weekly meet-ups at Smart Space KK, a public makerspace in Kota Kinabalu and are looking for developers around the city to join them. IGDA Malaysia Chapter organizes GameDev Hangouts every other two months and KDU Game Development is home to the largest Game Development course in Malaysia.

Click here to view more pictures from all 3 venues.

Special thanks to Yee I-Van and the team from KDU Game Development for the pics. Stay tune for more updates on our local gaming scene!