It is that time of the year when game developers in India and around the globe gather on a single platform to develop games within 48 hours over the weekend to compete in the event called Build Your Own Game (BYOG).
The game jam is available for all, irrespective of who you are and where you stay. Experienced game developers and students alike can participate in the event. The sprint started yesterday on 17 October at 5:30 pm and will go on till 20 October till 10:00 am India time.
This year, BYOG has 27 themes out of which the five most popular themes and five least popular themes were selected through public voting. The voting began a month ago with more than 500 people ‘having voiced their choice’ among the different themes for almost 10,000 times. The game developers had to select one theme from each category and make a game out of it. 
The themes are interesting and rather quirky. Five of the most popular themes are: Intelligence, Beauty, Experiment, Environment and Travel. Among the least popular themes: Shell, Preference, Parenting, Propaganda and Corporation. Game development can be anything ranging from a complicated 3D game to a simple text based game. Whatever game one is making, the participant has to ensure that the game is relevant to the theme.
After the entry closes on 20 October, the voting for the 10 best games begins on the same day and will go on till 30 October where in anyone can play the games and rate the game accordingly. The feedback will not only help the game developers but also give them a boost to even out what people felt was missing from the game. The top 10 games will be featured at NASSCOM Game Developer Conference, which is going to be held in Pune from 13 to 15 November. The 10 games will be judged by a special jury and the best game will be given the prize.
People are also participating from countries like Taiwan, Spain, Canada, Germany, USA and more to showcase their talent on this platform. BYOG is all about being experimental. How you experiment with the themes and how you interpret them.
Events like these will be a big boost to the individual game developers especially Indian game developers wanting to showcase their talent globally, and with BYOG 2012’s winning game – Project Heera being nominated for a BAFTA award, this goes to show how much talent is coming out of these game jams.
