A press conference announcing the event was held on the 25th. Speakers included Carolina Cosse, President of Antel; Eduardo Hipogrosso, Dean of the faculty; and Gonzalo Frasca (pictured), Professor of Video Games.
Cosse proposed this event as another way to contribute to technological development and added that the country must take advantage of these opportunities to build capacity.
Hipogrosso noted the success of the event’s first edition, expressing hope for the same outcome this year, and highlighted the faculty’s contribution to Uruguay’s video game industry through the Bachelor’s Degree in Animation and Video Games.
“The most important aspects of this event are learning, teamwork, and ‘being able to create new things,’” said Dr. Frasca. He compared the popularity of this tech event to the Uruguayan carnival currently taking place in Montevideo, noting how both are so different yet equally enriching: “That’s what the 21st century is all about,” he affirmed.
He then highlighted the growth of this industry. “Uruguay is gaining an increasingly strong international presence, not only through soccer but also through technology and creativity. Uruguayan games are being used more and more all over the world,” he stated.
The “Global Game Jam, ” organized by the International Game Developers Association, is a global event created five years ago to share experiences among video game developers, programmers, designers, musicians, animators, and illustrators, both amateurs and professionals.
The jams are made up of developers, students, and video game fans. The event began with an instructional video, after which participants had to create a video game in 48 hours based on a global theme that was revealed to them. On this occasion, the theme was a sound: a heartbeat. This allowed participants to explore the video game development process from different perspectives, such as programming, interactive design, narrative, and artistic expression.
In 2012, 242 organizations in 47 countries participated, and more than 2,000 games were created over a single weekend, setting a Guinness World Record.