Every year, the Dutch Game .Dev organises a Board Game Jam in Leeuwarden.
Every Game Jam needs a theme and the BGJ is no exception. At the start of the Jam, a theme is revealed that teams can incorporate into their designs. But the BGJ triples down on this: instead of one theme, we have a whopping three themes! Those themes were ‘Survival of the…’, ‘Fusion-Ha’ and ‘Revolution’.
Teams are not required to implement the themes, but many do choose to do so, resulting in some very interesting game concept! More on that later.
Now for the part you’ve been waiting for: the games! In total, six games immerged from the Jam. Take a look!
Made by: Sil and Robert Pitch: Check it out on YT!
Made by: Olivier, Sjouke and Jouke Pitch: Check it our on YT!
Made by: Friso, Michelle, Janna, Klara and Nils Pitch: Check it out on YT!
Made by: Wouter, Leon, Haukje, Arthur and Thomas Pitch: Check it out on YT!
Made by: Tamme, Bram, Loes and Gianluigi Pitch: Check it out on YT!
Made by: Wessel and Jeroen
Pitch: Check it out on YT!
* = Placeholder name, as I could not find the actual names of the game. Sorry!
Usually, the Jam offers a way to buy a custom-made T-shirt, unique to each year’s Jam and made by one artist. This year, the organisation decided on something more creative: instead of creating the design before the Jam, everybody attending the Jam could be part of the creation process! Once the design was finished, the organisation offered blank T-shirts, transfer paper and an iron, so that Jammers could put the design onto a shirt of their choice, however and wherever they wanted!
It worked as follows: one team would start the design, drawing fun characters or parts of their game and then the image would be passed on to the next team, allowing them to add something to the design! This would be repeated until every team added something to the design, before the art would be printed onto transfer paper. So, slowly but surely, the design became bigger and bigger.
Below, you can see some two of the steps and the final result. Want to see the complete process or get the print for yourself? Join the Board Game Jam Discord !
The 11th edition of the Board Game Jam took place in the Community Centre Welgelege in Leeuwarden, with a total of 22 participants, divided up into six groups.
The Jam kicked off on October 2nd, around 18:00 and ended on October 4th around 14:00 (followed by a couple hours of playtesting and cleaning up), giving Jammers around 24 hours of concepting, designing and testing.
Just like every year, we from the organisation, are amazed by the results of the Jam. Making games isn’t particularly easy, thus making the fact that all groups had a finished game the more impressing!
We want to thank all the participants and volunteers for another wonderful weekend full of creativity and enthousiasm and we hope that next year will be just as fun. See you next year!
