Green Game Jam Winners Revealed!
With 380 students participating in the Green Game Jam, across 80 Teams, this was always going to be a difficult choice. The jam – which took place on the 5-6 November across the length and breadth of the country - tasked Ukie’s student game jammers with creating compelling games to raise awareness of key climate issues amongst players.
This year we had students from over 20 educational institutions from Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland take part. Year on year there is an increasing level of competition as students continue to improve and impress with their submissions.
Before the winner is revealed, Ukie would to take a moment to thank Space Ape Games, Playmob, All Brandz, Tag Games, Epic Games, Fooditude, Underdog Coffee and of course the wonderful Rabin Ezra Scholarship Trust for helping to support this truly exciting initiative.
So, who won?
Green Game Jam Winners!
We can't stress how difficult it was to come to a decision this year. However, after much deliberation the judges came to a decision and this year's game jam winners and therefore champions are Team Sickly from the National Film and Television School with their game titled Extinction Crabellion. Team Sickly scored highly across the marking criteria board, really taking into consideration the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, whilst also finishing with a well rounded game. Another stand out, besides its beautiful visuals was the multiplayer co-op aspect to the game, allowing team members to work together to clear the beach of various bits of debri and waste.
Team Sickly's first place prizes include:
- A week-long internship at Playmob
- Tickets to Games First 2020 and a chance to showcase their game
- A free game of Fire Hazards Operation Survival game
- Echo friendly award created by All Brandz
- The grand prize; a £2,000 scholarship fund split between the team which has been kindly awarded by the Rabin Ezra Scholarship Fund!
Check out the game yourself here.
Team Sickly - NFTS (Extinction Crabellion) - Green Game Jam Winners 2019
Green Game Jam: Runners Up!
In a very close second, this year's runners up are PB&J Studios from London South Bank University with their beautiful game titled Pollution Panic. When we say close second, we mean it - there was very little between 1st and 2nd this year. The judges weren't just extremely impressed with the concept and playability of this game, but with how complete it was. As a result, Space Ape Games have also awarded this team tickets to Games First 2020, as well as a chance to showcase!
PB&J Studios - LSBU (Pollution Panic) - Green Game Jam Runners Up 2019
Social Champions Award
For a second year running Ukie included the Social Champion Award in order to make this national event feel more inclusive. This year we were blown away by the truly astonishing levels of engagement the Green Game Jam received. The use of #UkieGreenJam2019 and #Playing4ThePlanet help to drive over half a million impressions, thousands of engagements and over 1,000 tweets directed at the event. It was really difficult to pick a winner this year, but Joe, Joe & Co stood out, delivering some truly entertaining content whilst also looking to engage with other teams through likes, comments and retweets. The sole purpose of this award is to make this feel like a collective event, which they truly encompassed. Well done team!
A Final Word
The judges really had their work cut out for them this year and managed handle the process with professionalism and integrity, spending a fun filled Saturday at Space Ape Games reviewing all of the games. The judges were well versed in their line-of-work to judge the creation; Gorm Lai, Director, Kotori Studios; Colin Hughes, Senior Principal Engineer, Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe; Nic Walker and Deborah Mensah-Bonsu, Space Ape Games; Dee Patel and Jake Pegram from Playmob.
With the end of an immensely successful year nigh, we’d like to thank everyone who was involved in the running of the Green Game Jam and congratulate everyone who participated in the making of the games, every-single game we saw was at a professional standard and we now look forward to 2020 pushing the initiative for an even bigger jam.
Follow Ukie Students for updates or get in contact with Leon to find out how your business can get involved.