The Sarawak Game Developer’s Community (SwkGDC) concluded its third annual SwkGDC Game Jam, held from 9th August 2024 to 11th August 2024 at TEGAS Digital Village (TDV). With the theme “Motion”, participants from across East and West Malaysia were challenged to ideate, develop, and present a simple game based on the theme within 3 days.
This year’s event attracted more than 70 registrations, including students, enthusiasts, and working professionals coming from across East and West Malaysia; smashing last year’s record of 40 participants.
Throughout the game jam, participants sought help and guidance from a roster of industry mentors from across Malaysia. This culminated in a climactic final day of presentations and playtesting sessions that were open for the public to attend.
Eleven teams presented their prototypes to a public crowd and a panel of judges, who ranked each game and picked three winning teams. The panel of six judges comprised representatives from TDV, SDEC, Xbox, two game jam mentors and a local developer, Nerdook Productions.
The three winning games were “Chicken Express” by BeeBeeBoopBoop, “Lightspeed” by KentangSoft, and “Specter Sight” by The Holiday. All prototypes submitted to the SwkGDC Game Jam can be played for free at https://itch.io/jam/swkgdc-game-jam-2024/entries.
These winning teams will be given the opportunity to showcase at Level Up PLAY hosted by MDEC, happening from 13th to 15th September 2024 at KLCC. Meanwhile, SDEC will be sponsoring the teams’ travel and accommodation costs, and sponsoring free conference passes to Level Up KL happening from 1st to 3rd October 2024.
Before ending the 3-day programme with a playtesting session, participants and attendees were treated to an inspiring sharing session by Jun Shen Chia, from the Xbox Global Expansion team for Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
“SarawakGDC was an incredible experience for Xbox to participate in, as I got to meet with such passionate and talented student and early-in-career developers. Xbox is highly supportive of events such as these, as it aligns very well with our mission to empower and elevate developers that want to share their creativity with the world,” said Jun Shen.
“I was impressed by the support from institutions like TEGAS and SDEC, and have no doubts that the Sarawak game development ecosystem will thrive thanks to such close collaboration between community leaders like CtrlD Studio, and the local government agencies. I can’t wait to see where SarawakGDC and the game developer community in Sarawak goes next.”
This year’s SwkGDC Game Jam was supported by TEGAS Digital Village, Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation (SDEC), Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Microsoft Xbox, and GamesHQ Malaysia.
