We are excited to announce that our first ever GameMaker Studio 2 education focused Game Jam: The GamJam, is coming to UK schools and colleges! GameMaker Studio 2 will be offering free Jam licenses for all schools that take part and we’ve created the following blog to provide you with all the tools, resources and information you will need to get involved.

What is it?

GamJam is a competition with two separate categories, one for Secondary school students (Years 9-11) and another for College students (16+). Students will work in teams of 3 to make a game so whether they are into art, animation, or coding there is space to develop and showcase their amazing skills.

There will be prizes provided to each school for the best team as selected by the school or college. Following this, their chosen game can be submitted to a UK National Final for their category.

When is it?

The Education GamJam event will run from the 1st to the 30th of November allowing schools the flexibility to learn GameMaker, run the competition and select the finalists through the entire month. Schools must select their winning game and submit it by the 12pm deadline on the 6th of December to be eligible for the national competition.

Who can enter?

Any UK Secondary School or College, whether or not they currently teach using GameMaker. We are offering a free temporary GameMaker Studio 2 Desktop licence to all during the jam to ensure this is possible. Teams of 3 students can enter. Secondary school students should be in years 9-11 and College students but must currently be studying at the college they represent.

Themes!

• ‘SPACE’ is the theme for the Secondary School category allowing students to follow and expand on our educational tutorial “Space Bubbles"

Colleges -

• ‘CHANGE’ is the theme for the College category allowing experienced students the potential for more artistic freedom

Prizes!

• The winning school and college will receive: 30 x 2 year Achiever Licenses and best of all a winners trophy!
• The winning teams will receive: 3 x 2 year personal Indie Licenses, 3 Certificates and a winners trophy!

How Will We Support You?

• Every school that enters will receive 30 x Educator Seats that last until 31st December 2021
• There are teacher resources that can be used to teach students how to program using GameMaker, by making the game “Space Bubbles” https://www.yoyogames.com/blog/540/education-learning-to-program or "Little Town" https://www.yoyogames.com/en/blog/little-town-gamemaker-tutorial
• College students can explore our detailed tutorials to learn the basics of GameMaker Studio 2 https://www.yoyogames.com/en/tutorials
• Explore our Marketplace for scripts and assets to help bring your ideas to life
• Further resources and recorded live webinar sessions will be provided to help both teachers and the students taking part

Signing Up

Step 1 - Have an Education Account in the schools name

Step 2 - Enter the competition: >> HERE << (You must be logged into the Education account to see this form)

Step 3 - Once verified we will send you GameMaker licenses and all of the materials you will need to take part!

Submission Criteria

• The games entered must be made in GameMaker Studio 2 and exported to Windows, Mac or HTML5
• Submissions must include exported project file (.yyz) and a playable export of the game
• Submissions to be sent to: [email protected]

Resources From Our Community

• Pyxel Edit - A different pixel art editor designed to make it fun and easy to make art - https://pyxeledit.com/
• Aseprite - Animated sprite editor & pixel art tool - https://www.aseprite.org/
• GraphicsGale - Easy to use animation graphics editor - https://graphicsgale.com/us/
• Coolors - The super fast color schemes generator! - https://coolors.co/
• Beepbox - Online chiptune music too. - https://www.beepbox.co
• BFXR - Sound effects for computer games - https://www.bfxr.net/
• ChipTone - ChipTone is a free tool for generating sound effects - http://sfbgames.com/chiptone/
• Kenny - Free game assets, no strings attached - https://kenney.nl
• Textbox - GM scripts for text boxes - https://github.com/GameMakerDiscord/textbox-9slice

Written by Nathan Moorjani

Nathan is our stats guru here at GameMaker. When he's not crunching the numbers for us, you'll find him walking the dog or conquering Europe for the 100th time on Rome Total War.