Game Jam+ reopens its doors to Manila, pushes for another Filipino win

Game Jam+ is mixing fun with business, encouraging local indie devs to include marketing, pitching, and monetization when creating game prototypes.

Hot off a historic win, the Philippines is hosting another year of Game Jam+, the world’s largest game development marathon, this October. Though most game jams focus on creation and community, Game Jam+ kicks things up by incorporating business savvy into its program, giving young video game developers opportunities to turn their games into businesses.

At its core, Game Jam+ is a global collaborative movement that started in Brazil. Ian Rochlin, Founder, and CEO, hope to boost the international indie games industry, wanting “local organizers to improve their game development ecosystems.”

A competition and an incubation program

Apart from being an international game development competition, Game Jam+ is also an eight-month incubation program, with the finals culminating in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The project aims to foster an environment that will cultivate original thinkers.

For the Manila leg, Game Jam+ will be providing the resources that every budding game developer would need — from mentorship dojos on prototyping, building a career, and getting your game published to an exclusive mixer where devs can mingle and expand their network.

Manila and beyond

As a testament to strengthening the local industry, Game Jam+ Manila will be collaborating with key associations and studios across the country, including the Game Developers Association of the Philippines, the International Game Developers Association Manila, Cyber Craft PH, the Creative Content Creators Association of the Philippines (SIKAP), the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Cebu Game Dev.

In true community-building fashion, the competition also seeks to break the misconception that only pros can join. Students, beginners, hobbyists, and professionals alike can enter the jam to hone their skills and receive training, no matter their level of expertise.

Coming back for another win

This year’s organizers hope to bring a back-to-back win not just for the Philippines but also for Asia. Filipino indie studio Psychic City Games bagged last year’s grand prize, Game of the Year, along with Best Game in Asia and Best Sound Design awards.

With a team consisting of first-time jammers who met in college, they developed a puzzle visual novel, Meet Me on the Mountain, throughout the incubation program.

About Game Jam+ & DevelUP

Game Jam Plus is the most extensive game development marathon and acceleration program in the world. It’s a global collaborative movement that aims to turn games into business, to be the entrance for professionals in various fields.

The main objective of GJ+ is to foster the creative economy industry with new games and companies, combining the interests of different types of developers in the world, showing the potential of independent games, and stimulating the notion of gaming as a business for developers, whether reproducing market situations or connecting with major players in the industry.

In its seventh year, it will feature more than 100 cities across 30 countries worldwide, with more than 3800 participants coming up with 800 game projects.

DevelUP is the premiere game development organization of UP Diliman. Aside from creating games and supporting the local industry, we focus on the growth of our members, equipping them with the skills they need to bring their own ideas to life.

Registration

For more info, visit the official Official Game Jam+ Website. You can already register for Game Jam+ Manila via this link (Use Code GJPLUSMANILA to get 100% off).