CELEBRATING LOCAL CREATIVITY: UCM SKILLS WEEK GAME JAM

Our esports executive Liam Slack recently attended 'UCM's Skills Week Game Jam' as part of the judging panel. The event was geared towards student developers and gamers, providing a platform to showcase their talent. Following the event, Liam has encapsulated his thoughts in the following write-up. 

I recently had the immense pleasure of attending and evaluating the work of local students taking part in the Game Jam hosted as part of the University College Isle of Man Skills Week.

The event brought together aspiring student developers and gamers from the unit 8 computer games design course into teams, providing a platform for them to harness their creativity and demonstrate skills they have learned during their module.

The challenge fostered a mix of a technical and creative atmosphere with students working tirelessly in teams to bring their ideas to life from scratch within the 8-hour limit.

The event showcased not only their technical prowess but also their ability to think outside the box, bringing together a wide range of accessibility features, unique gameplay mechanics, and impressive visuals into their creations.

The video game jam portion of the skills week showcased remarkable talent, passion, and innovation of our students across all the teams, and though only one team could be victorious the quality of submissions from the event leaves me confident that the Isle of Man can grow and thrive as a hub for game development and innovation.

My heartfelt congratulations to all the participants for their outstanding contributions. I look forward to future editions of the skills week event, and hope that individuals interested in development or looking at getting into game design consider enrolling in one of the courses available at University College Isle of Man!

Take a look and see what skills week looked like across all of UCM's programs!