Showdown Game Jam Round Up!

With a tip of our hats, and the orange glow of the setting sun – Our May 2024 Game Jam comes to a close. But what a rootin’, tootin’ performance it’s been, from all of you! In case you missed it (and the twirling tumbleweeds and spur-heeled boots didn’t give it away), our theme for this one was ‘SHOWDOWN’, so we were hoping for lots of cowboy and old-western games – and we saw a veritable horde of them that blew us away with their creativity! I hope you’re holding onto your saddles, pardners – we’re about to gallop in and have a closer look!

Just as you might expect in the wild west, our journey into this Game Jam starts with some epic action! We had a bunch of adventurous games in our roster this time round, with plenty of old-timey duels out in the desert, firing lasers at pesky outlaws who threatened the peace of our lovely code clubs! In ‘Wild West Trouble’ we had to leap over enemy projectiles, and in another game we had to sidestep around pillars to flee from our approaching opponent. And of course, who can forget the game where we not only got to fight a cheeky outlaw, but also a sentient tumbleweed?! I’m not sure what evil scientist was involved there, but it was certainly a tricky battle!

But of course, the old west wasn’t all just showdowns at high noon. One game – aptly named ‘Dodge the EVIL’ had us fleeing through the dunes, leaping high over cacti, in an infinite-runner fashion! And in another, we got to play a high-stakes game of hide and seek with a rather skeletal-looking sheriff… let me tell you from experience, you don’t want to get caught by him! So you’d best keep ducking and weaving through the busy streets and houses, gaining points as you go. Even the beautiful shine of gold itself wasn’t safe in our Game Jam – one of our games featured fake coins that exploded if you grabbed them! Yikes…

Now, after all that excitement, you’d probably want to do something lighthearted to relax with… well, our coders have got you covered for that too! We had a couple of dance-off games that let us boogie our way to victory, with one particularly amazing one that got faster and faster as time went on – you’d best press those arrow keys fast and not stop till the cows come home! And if dancing isn’t really your style, you can relax and watch some cool animations of cowboy shenanigans, or admire some lovely wild western artwork, or even re-enact a showdown as a couple of ants! All of these and more awaited us in the Game Jam – I’m sure you can you see why we’re so impressed with our members!

And of course, us mentors had a crack at it too – Rodeos, Gold Rushes, Rootin-Tootin Shooters and Captured Cat Deputies all appeared in their games, just adding to the cowboy frenzy!

Overall, everyone did a fantastically creative job, with powerful coding knowledge and fantastic visual designs – we’re all super proud of you!
That’s all from us for now – but we’ll see you next time for another epic Game Jam! Yeehaw, and farewell!