This past weekend, December 2-3, we had a very special event taking place in the Eipix community – our colleagues from various offices across Serbia took part in the second edition of Eipix Jam!
The Eipix Jam is a relatively fresh tradition in our company, though the concept of a game jam is well known and beloved across the world. A game jam is an organized event where game developers compete in designing, programming, and creating video games in a very short time span. The Eipix Jam is the annual internal game jam for Eipix employees. They are given 40 hours to create a functional game on a given theme. Then our board of directors sits down and chooses the best games across several categories, while the company as a whole also gets a say in choosing the people’s champion.
The theme of Eipix Jam 2016 was “No Theme, Just Make a Mobile Game People Will Want to Play”, simple enough. More than 70 jammers signed up, forming 17 teams. Our colleagues working outside of Novi Sad (with the small exception of our Belgrade colleagues, who chose to jam from their usual working places) came together as a company in the Eipix HQ in Novi Sad. Seeing people who normally spend their workdays creating games willingly choose to spend an extra weekend creating games, and also not sleeping, was quite a sight. It proved that even years of working in the game development industry for a living cannot lessen the pure thrill of working on a game of your own.
Jammers were supplied with tools of their trade, food and drinks, the most comfortable chairs in the building, and the adoration of non-participants – pretty much everything but sleep and a shower. Most of them worked hard through the night, cramming, jamming, and devising intricate techniques of staying awake. For 40 hours straight, raw, chaotic creativity spread throughout the Eipix HQ. Once the dust had settled, 15 sparkling new games were submitted. Compared to last year’s games, the submissions this year have grown even more elaborate and more creative. There is no doubt that the selecting committee will have a spectacularly difficult task before them.
This year, there is a new addition to the prize pool – aside from the monetary prizes, the best games will be taken into consideration for further development, and even publishing. As we may have told you repeatedly, Eipix Entertainment is now a self-publishing company, which means that one of the games made in absolute secrecy, under the cover of the night, may soon find a way to your mobile devices as well. From what we’ve been able to spy over the past weekend, there’s bound to be some very addictive gameplay heading your way. Still, even if nothing comes of it (which is highly unlikely), Eipix Jam Vol. 2 was an absolute success in our book – it allowed us to get together, hone our skills, test both our creative and physical limits, and do what we love best – make video games!
