Winnipeg game developers take part in worldwide video game hackathon

Local game developers gathered in Winnipeg this weekend to take part in one of the world's largest and longest-running game jam events.

The event ran from Friday to Sunday and saw a sold-out crowd of 100 developers take part in Ludum Dare 44, a bi-annual online-based game jam connecting game-makers from around the world.

Daniel Voth, who helped organize the local event, says game jams are hackathons for video games where those taking part have a limited amount of time — in this case a weekend — to plan, design and create a working game from scratch.

"We have people from all different skill sets — musicians, programmers, writers, designers — and essentially we just get into a space and over the course of the weekend we'll make games," he said.

"It's an opportunity to use those skills that you might have gotten in school or from work and just have an opportunity to make something creative, make something outside of what you're doing in your day-to-day."

The events can be a good opportunity for developers of all skill levels to get involved in the city's game-making community, said Voth, who noted this weekend's jam had a lot of new faces.

"I think it can be intimidating sometimes, you might be shy," he said of getting involved in game design.

"But based on what I've been hearing, this has been a really great experience, it's been welcoming, and casual and a great time for everyone."

'A really cool ordeal'

The developers work on their own or with a team to build the games, which this year were centred around the theme "life is currency."

Rebecca Harrison, who teaches art and game design to high school students, took part in the jam and said other than basing the game around the theme, developers can take any direction they want for their games.

"It can be anything … for example we're making a game where you're a slime and you fight other slimes and you take their slime and that's how you win — their life is now your currency," she explained with a laugh.

"There's so many unique things going on here, it's a really cool ordeal."

At the end of the weekend, the local developers present their games to each other.

All of the creations, including games made at similar events around the world, can be played online at the Ludum Dare website.

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