The India Game Developer Conference (IGDC) has launched Game Connect – a collaboration between game developers, colleges and students to upskill, generate interest and build a connection between industry and academia.
For the first time, IGDC has also launched GameJam – a game developing competition for colleges. For this competition, the conference organisers will give a problem statement, resources, guidelines and the judging criteria to the college. Scoring will be based on the participating team’s originality of an idea, engaging gameplay and completeness of the app.
Any Indian college is eligible to apply, with a list of participants’ names, email ids, courses being pursued and phone numbers. Student applicants of the institute need to attach a faculty member’s contact. Each GameJam needs to have a minimum of 10 participating teams. To expand the network and create a culture of game development, IGDC requires every participating college to begin a Gaming Club and share the details.
The conference orgainsers will provide winner and participation certificates and the GameJam winners will get free tickets to IGDC 2024 and internship opportunities with leading game studios in the country. To guide registered colleges, the organisers will provide access to pre-recorded tutorials on hygiene pointers of how to organise a GameJam in institutes, and pre-recorded videos on game design and technology. Colleges need to share photos and post-event reports with the organisers. The college will be part of the larger Game Connect discord community to help young minds interact with industry veterans.
Speaking on the initiative, IGDC chairman Sridhar Muppidi said, “The Indian Game industry is at a pivotal moment. We are starting to see exponential growth, however, for the industry to reach its true potential, we need a regular pipeline of talent to come into the industry and we believe that this can be achieved with getting students interested in the art of game development.”
As part of this deal, IGDC will enable participants to explore internships with multiple game developer studios, enabling them to explore career options in the gaming industry. Designed for colleges in India, Game Connect is kicking off with a GameJam / hackathon that lets students understand game design and development.