Our first ever game jam has come to an end, and we are so excited to share the winning game with the world! For one month, we invited novice and experienced game designers alike to create an anime-style game adhering to our theme of “whimsical” to showcase their skillset and creativity. This was an opportunity to bring together the ever-growing spheres of anime and indie gaming in a friendly competition where participants showcased the kinds of games that they would like to play. We received a number of incredible submissions and are happy to share the first-place winner as determined by our team of internal judges, as well as the game that won highest public vote!
Winner
Moonbridge Library by David Frankel (Programming & Tech Art), Stephanie Shih (Narrative, UX, UI, Art), Stephen Trinh (Game Design & Programming), and Tommy Pedrini (Music)
We received many impressive submissions, and when weighing the categories of Original Anime, Theme, Game Design, Story, Graphics, Audio, and FUN!, this game blew us away. Moonbridge Library is a beautifully made game about Almira, a young girl who travels through different lands with her magical, portable library and her best friend and shop co-owner, Pingo—a “bookwyrm.” Through her work, she hopes to create a book that will tell the life story of her deceased grandparents, who passed before she had the chance to truly get to know them. However, is there something preventing her from finishing it? You can download this very whimsical game to play on your Windows PC or play in browser via the game’s itch.io page. Don’t forget to also check it out onsite in room 100AB at anime expo chibi!
Highest Public Vote
Rena by Belindraw (Art), Daryl (Music & Story), Lee (Music Implementation & Programming), Lua (Programming), and Yoko8 (Programming & Story)
Gamers from all over had the opportunity to play our game jam submissions and ranked Rena as the winner of highest public vote! This is a game about Rena, a young woman who is lost in life working a dead-end career as middle management, her life a cycle of meetings and deadlines. Then one day, she meets a little spirit who rekindles her artistic talents. Armed with her daily planner and scrapbook from the past, embark on a whimsical journey in self-discovery!
To learn more about our game jam and to peruse the other excellent submissions we received, please check the official page for our jam here.
We thank everyone who helped make our first game jam such a great success. We look forward to even more opportunities to promote indie game development and education in the future!