GameScholars Awards Ceremony at the Madrid-Quintana headquarters

Ginés Miñano 

The 'GameJams' organized by GameScholars are an initiative that, according to Pablo Cordero Vidigal, student and tournament coordinator, "arose from the desire to put into practice, in a fun way, the knowledge we acquire in our degree program, as well as to stimulate creativity. URJC provides us with the space, the prizes, and the jury to make all of this possible."

Regarding the winning projects, Cordero explains that the submitted games were “highly entertaining and innovative.” The first prize went to 'Unfamiliar, Yet', “a horror game where you explore two worlds using a camera, with the goal of escaping a monster that is chasing you.” Second place went to 'Tochimochi', “a rather cute game where you have to solve people's problems using your phone (in real life) and try to get to your grandma's house.” Third place was awarded to 'Corruption Update', “a game made by first-year students that blends digital and pixel art in two worlds that are falling apart.”

The theme for this edition, Two Worlds, One Challenge, was defined in collaboration with the National Technological University (UTN) of Buenos Aires. The competition featured a Spanish and an Argentinian jury, and both institutions participated in the organization and the awarding of prizes. The teams had one month to develop a video game from scratch and were required to attend weekly progress sessions to present updates, resolve doubts, and receive technical support.

Cordero points out that this edition had a special character, since “instead of doing a live opening gala, we recorded a home videoHowever, we didn't want to do something cold and scripted, so we decided to record with a lot of humor and spontaneity. In that way, we think we ended up with an entertaining result that also attracted people to participate in the Jam's activities. Since this video turned out so well, we decided to repeat it, but this time we had to show it to everyone as closing of the event".

Once again, GameScholars is renewed and consolidated as a safe and dynamic meeting point where future professionals in the video game industry can share their creations and ideas.