Vanier College recently held its third annual Cégep GameJam on January 13-14, 2024, bringing together 100 enthusiastic students from 20 different cégeps for an immersive experience in the world of game creation. GameJam 2024 was a unique 2-day learning opportunity where participants were able to create board games, video games, or card games.
See a video recap of the event here.
Cégep GameJam is open to all, including beginners with or without a background in programming. However, to help students grasp different aspects of game design including art, programming, music and narration, 20 mentors from the video game industry, including professionals from Ubisoft and independent game studios, as well as various university game design programs such as Concordia and McGill, were on hand during the event.
In all, students formed teams and created over 24 novel video and board games. Game can be seen here: itch.io page. Registration for the event was free and included free breakfast, lunch, and dinner, along with a complimentary T-shirt for the participants.
Avery Rueb, a French teacher, a game designer at Affordance Studio and one of the organizers, expressed his enthusiasm for the event, stating, "This is my favorite event of the year. Students are so motivated from the second they walk into the event and I just need to make sure the food is on the table and the Wi-Fi is running. We don't even give out prizes. They just want to make a cool game that other people will play."
Iles Belkessam, a first-year Programming and Math student from Vanier, says "it was fun to have an in-person event where I got the occasion to meet very talented students and mentors with experience in level design or game music. I was quite impressed by what other people made! It was a challenge to make a game in only 2 days, but it was incredibly rewarding to see how much could be achieved in such a short period."
For more information about the event, please visit GameJamDingo.ca. GameJam Dingo will be taking place once again in January, 2025.
A heartfelt thank you goes out to Vanier College and the Ministère de l'Enseignement supérieur for their support of this event.
