A TEAM of Saudi video game developers took home the first prize of the GCC Game Jam competition last night.
The results of the two-day contest were announced at the first GCC Game Conference, co-organised by InfiniteWare and Bahrain Polytechnic.
The conference was held as part of StartUp Bahrain Week which got underway yesterday.
Teams of developers were given two-and-a-half days to develop a game based around a theme.
The developers were given the opportunity to showcase their games to publishers and investors attending the conference.
The first prize carried a cash award of BD1,500 followed by BD600 and BD300, as well as BD200 as several bonus awards.
“This event is a massive success for game developers in Bahrain, it seems like there’s a positive response from the government, there are entities like Tamkeen thinking of working with us,” InfiniteWare managing director and event organiser Ameen Al Tajer told the GDN.
“Another big thing was what the developers demonstrated to the conference, everyone expects games from the Bahrain or Saudi to be small time but they saw the serious work that went into these games.
“It’s unfortunate that the region is not mature enough to appreciate these people and they have some really advanced features but the business talks were very eye-opening to the general public about the business aspect of game development,” he said.
Eighteen teams from the GCC took part in the Game Jam, but it was Team Morph of four members from Saudi Arabia which came out on top.
In Morph you play as an employee who’s trying to escape the desk job by morphing reality to traverse different obstacles and solving puzzles to escape.
“This conference was so much more than what I expected, over the last few years the community has really grown and there are more opportunities for developers and investors to meet,” said Team Morph member Mohammed Arkobi.
“Events like these grow the economy, and develop this industry, which will bring in jobs and help the economy in many ways.
“Game development is not just programming, it involves marketing, art and designs and many other things and events like these help to bring them together and work together,” he said.
Second prize went to team Roundbox and third place went to Team AlmaRhythm from Bahrain.
The GDN reported last year Bahrain has a 40 per cent gaming penetration rate, the highest in the GCC region, and more than 94pc of Bahraini households have a personal computer.
The Middle East and North Africa digital media market is expected to triple in size to $4 billion by 2022, while the region’s online gaming market is growing by 13pc every year – while mobile gaming is growing at 18pc per annum.
The industry has the potential to create as many as 5,000 to 6,000 jobs, not only for developers and programmers but also for musicians, accountants, advertisers, artists, writers, voice actors and other specialties required as part of the game development process.
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