For its third year in a row Bahrain will be part of the Global Game Jam event that is organized across 110 countries with over 9000 locations. Organized by Unreal Bahrain and in Partnership with Batelco, and Brinc@Batelco the game jammers will be competing against the clock to develop games over 48 hours.

The Global Game Jam is not a competition; rather, it is an international event created “to bring people together to create video games or non-digital games, like board or card games. Participants, also known as jammers, work together to rapidly prototype game designs and hopefully create inspiring new ideas that contribute to the growth of the games industry. All Global Game Jam sites share a common theme and jam diversifiers – sub-themes that provide additional, but optional, structure to jammers”. (Global Game Jam website)

The Global Game Jam runs for 48 hours from 6 PM on Thursday the 30th of January until 6 PM the 1st of February 2020; the Theme will be revealed on the first day at kick-off. The jam is open for all who would like to participate regardless of their background knowledge at game development; to register head over to the Global Game Jam Site and register at the Bahrain Location. Participants don’t need to search far for resources as they can be found at the global game jam resources page.

The Bahrain chapter of the Global Game Jam was hosted for the first time at Corporate Hub 9 in 2018 & 2019 and was organized by Unreal Bahrain, where 16 participants developing 6 games.

A game jam is a game development hackathon that usually goes on for 48 hours straight. The Global Game Jam is an annual distributed game jam, meaning that it occurs globally and is organized by the local game development communities in each city; 2019 saw more than 860 locations, with 47000 participants, and over 9000 games being made.

Event Schedule

30th of January – Day 1 – Arrival

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM Registration and Explanation of Rules

  • Networking
  • Session “Quick tips for a Successful Jam”
  • 6:00 PM Announcements & Keynote

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM Pitching and Group Forming

– Social “Get to Know Each Other” exercises

– Pitch your game Idea

– Group Forming

31st of January – Day 2 – Work

6:00 PM – 7:00 PM Playtesting games and Advice

1st of February– Day 3- Work

6:00 PM – 7:30 PM Deadline for handing in the games

7:30 PM – 8:30 PM Presentations – Each team has 10 minutes to do a short presentation

  • What to bring
    Bring your own devices, and what you need if you are planning to stay the full 48 hours.
  • Important to know
    Register on the global Game Jam Site https://globalgamejam.organd select Bahrain as your location.
    There are no prizes, just bragging rights.
    Let people come along

To register please go to the Global Game Jam Website and signup for the Bahrain Location, or the location closest to you. Also join our Meetup page to join the local game development community in Bahrain. There are a set of free and cool resources are available here.

Find out more about the Global Game Jam Here.