Earlier this month we held our annual FuturLab Game Jam which challenges our team to create a game in 48 hours based on a theme they only find out at the start of the Game Jam.
This year’s theme was ‘Nostalgia’ and jammers wasted no time coming up with new ideas and creative ways to create games based around it. We showed off the buzz and excitement on our social channels so be sure to follow us on Instagram, Bluesky, X and Facebook to see all the behind-the-scenes in the future!
Check out our wrap up videos of day 1 and day 2, as well as chats with some of our Jammers, Steven and Tom.
The game jam is something I look forward to every year. It's always a blast spending time with people you don't usually get to work with, doing tasks you don't usually get to do, and building a game that is so different from the usual games we make. Seeing what everyone can achieve in just two days is always mind blowing. I thought the theme this year was perfect, and it's so interesting to see how other teams have interpreted it. For me, the game jam itself was nostalgic, and reminded me of how I got into game development in the first place - just me at my desk at home, messing about with friends and trying to build something fun!
Lauren, Technical Artist
Our teams are provided with snacks and Game Jam merch either in the office or via a goodie box delivered to our remote team members. This year we also included a bingo card to encourage our teams to share their Game Jam experiences and look after themselves!
At the end of the 48-hour challenge, everyone in the studio sets time aside to play the games created by those who took on the challenge. We then cast our votes for favourite games in numerous categories such as most fun, best art, most replayable, best writing and more! We had 13 playable games by the end of the Game Jam and they ranged from story-driven nostalgic reflections on childhood friendships and fun, retro-style graphics with crazy taxi style gameplay to racing around the OG car city carpet/rug so many of us remember from the 90s and 00s.
This year ‘Take Care of Stumpy’ came out on top of the Overall Favourite Game category with the winning team ‘Constant Ants’ taking home the trophy. In this game, you take care of a creature called Stumpy in a Tamagotchi-style game while also fighting the pop-up ads that are plaquing your old Windows XP desktop computer environment.
Our team across FuturLab said lovely things about this game/team such as “the most nostalgic game... I was transported back to being a kid” and that it was “fun, chaotic and very enjoyable, had me laughing and smiling being frustrated at the ads... having my screen completely overran yet also the nostalgia of caring for a little Tamagotchi-like creature. Great idea and well executed!”.
The annual Game Jam is a huge highlight in our calendar each year as we are reminded of the amazing skill, creativity and dedication of our team and all the amazing ideas they have.
Huge congratulations to everyone who took part this year! We can’t wait to see what our future Game Jams will bring.