Welcome!

Hello and welcome to all students at Malmö University’s Game Development program! 

 We have all given it our best during the school year, and now a few months of summer and relaxation awaits ut! Before that however, we should celebrate all of our hard work with doing what we love to do most, making games! This is why you’re now invited to participate in the Game Lab Jam: Summer 23!

What is the Game Lab Jam? 

The term “game jam” originated from the idea of musicians gathering and playing music (jamming) together. Similarly, developers can meet as a team to create a video game in a short amount of time. 

The aim of this game jam is to improve a sense of community and to socialize between the years, so that we can learn from each other and better our teamwork while also partaking in an activity we’re all passionate about. This is an event for the students, by the students. In order to further push this, attendees are heavily encouraged to develop their games together on-site, in the Game Labs!

You will soon be able to fill out a sign up form where you specify talents, interests and if you have any friends that you would like to partner up with. The theme and limitations of the jam will be revealed to you on the first day of the event, after which you will get started on your projects! 

Developers of all skill levels are not just allowed but encouraged. Don’t hesitate to participate if you’re new to coding or game jams, because this friendly event is for everyone :) 

The Game Lab Jam has already been held once before, and you can see the wonderful games created during that jam here: https://itch.io/jam/game-lab-jam/entries

Game Lab Info

The game lab's computers contains a lot of software designed to help you during the jam. In before the start of the jam, the computers will be updated with new software. This means that more recent versions of Unity, as well as Unreal Engine, will probably be available to use during the jam. More update will be released in the Discord channel closer to the jam. 

Of course, if you want to bring your own computer and develop on that, you are more than welcome to!

Another exciting thing is that we have managed to gain extended access to the game lab during the jam, which means that the usual closed hours between 22:00 and 06:00 does not apply to us! Instead, we are allowed to be in the labs until 03:00 every night. This means that we are free to sit and jam, hang out, socialize and eat until we drop! (Out of obligation we must inform you that no one should do any of those things "until they drop"...Jam responsibly!) OBS!!: You need to have a MAU multicard to be able to identify yourself as a student in order to stay in the game labs longer than until 20:00!

Also, in order to access Orkanen and the game labs during the weekend, you need to have a multikort and your card pin. You can find more information regarding multikort here: https://student.mau.se/stod/it-service/datoridentitet-och-multikort/ 

This Jam's Theme

The theme of the jam will is (Summer) Break! 

When is it? 

 2nd of June 17:00 - 4th of June 17:00. 

Deadline for signing up is the 22nd of May 23:59. 

The groups will be announced on the 26th of May. 

A more detailed schedule will be released soon. 

Where is it? 

The game laboratories in the university building Orkanen, more specifically OR:A332 and OR:A333.  

Schedule

During the Jam, a number of things will happen! To make it easier to have an overview, we have created this schedule that we will (try) to follow! After the submission deadline is reached, everyone will be given the chance to try out each others games in the lab before going home to a well deserved rest. 

Friday:

• 17:00 Start
• 17:15 Welcome, introduction and THEME REVEAL
• 18:30 Dinner
• 21:00 Quiz

Saturday:

• 09:00 Start
• 12:00 Lunch
• 15:00 Treasure Hunt
• 17:00 Dinner
• 20:00 Arcade Competition

Sunday:

• 09:00 Start
• 12:00 Lunch
• 15:00 Deadline incitement
• 17:00 Deadline!!
• Voting until the next day

Preparations

To sign up for the Jam, please press the join button at the top of the page, as well as fill out the following form: https://forms.gle/pjwuqwMHPgyYZsBW7

If you've never partaken in a jam before, especially through Itch, we suggest that you read a guide on the basic concepts of a game jam. If you don't have an Itch account already, create one to sign up for the jam and be able to vote on the games after the jam is complete! 

To prepare for the Jam, you and your group are allowed to create a project (Unity, UE5, Monogame etc...) as well as a git repo. If you're thinking about using specific assets, these can be added to the project as well, though do beware that they might not fit the theme of the Jam! Although you may not begin development of anything directly connected to the game.

Another thing you can do is to get to know your group before hand! What are everyone's interest in games? What parts of game development are they the most excited about? What role would they like to have in the group during the jam? All of these things are great to discuss before hand so you are ready to go when the jam starts!

Submitting a Game

To submit your game to the jam you upload your game to itch.io. Remember to make the game free and set the game to "Released".

If you're submitting a Unity game and want to provide a version that works in browsers, you should set compression type to Gzip from Unity's WebGL Player Settings.(Heavily recommended to do!)

Afterwards, return to the jam page and click "submit game" and choose your game from the dropdown menu, answer the required questions and then you've completed the submission!

If you want to make sure that the game has been submitted correctly to the jam, you can go to the games page and look for the badge that says "Submission to the Game Lab Jam VT 23" in the top right.

You can submit the game at any point during the jam, and it is always good to submit quite a bit before the deadline in case something goes wrong,   

Who is organizing it? 

Valter Lindecrantz - 3rd year 

Malin Ågren - 2nd year 

Kim Svedberg - 1st year 

Martin Guvå - 1st year 

If you have any questions, feel free to shoot any of us a message on Discord! :) 

You can also get more information regarding the Jam on the schools discord channel!