The Global Game Jam (GGJ) 2022 was held virtually from 20 to 30 January, attracting over 26,000 jammers from 680 jam sites in 10 countries. This year, the GGJ Hong Kong site was co-organised by Cyberport and COMP, which was the 11th biggest among all jam sites worldwide, with 241 jammers from students to professional game designers who created 59 games remotely. The best teams in nine different categories were awarded. Amongst them, two COMP teams received the Best Engagement Game and Best AR Game respectively.
Mr Wu Chun-Hung, (BSc (Hons) in Computing, Year 4) teamed up with Mr Zachary Sin (COMP PhD Student) and two staff of COMP to design and develop the game “Human Nature” within a week. They finally won the Best Engagement Game award.
Responding to the continued environmental crisis, “Human Nature” is themed on the duality of human and nature. To take charge of the universal development of humanity, players need to reduce pollution and balance the needs of humans and that of the planet. They could learn about the environmental and economic impacts and how to avoid global disasters when acquiring different resources.
On the other hand, three COMP undergraduates, including Mr Benedict Nicholas, Mr Coa Michael and Mr Hadi Nelsen (All from BSc (Hons) in Computing, Year 3), together with a schoolmate from the Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, won the Best AR Game award with their controllable AR game “Mono”.
This game runs through a fairy tale full of philosophical sayings in a simple and smooth art style. In the game, white squares in bright light are separated from opposite black shadows. Players need to build blocks in a way that matches the given puzzle projection. The team used Unity along with the Vuforia and Dotween package libraries to make the game compatible with AR.
Under the global theme of the word “Duality”, the teams formed by local participants were required to complete the full game development cycle from ideation to testing, including programming, art, game, sound and user interface design and testing in the time span of 240 hours. GGJ is the world's largest game jam event taking place around the globe, typically at physical locations, providing a creative platform for talented individuals to contribute to game development. It encourages participants to foster new friendships, increase their confidence and boosts opportunities within the community.
