Here are the Honorable Mentions of FGJ14 (in no specific order):

DIRTY ART AWARD
DR TURNER
YouTube video

Dr Turner is in the core of game jams. It is experimental and slightly cuckoo, yet simple and polished.  The design choices and selected audiovisual techniques tie well to the game mechanics, and fit perfectly to a bus jam production – Dr Turner manages to create an atmospheric experience with scarce assets. And like a great piece of art, it has a lot of hard to define personality. A strong focus on the central character makes the experience whole and well-defined.

DOUBLE VISION YRTEOP AWARD
Mielen peili – iliep neleiM (Mind Mirror)
YouTube video

Mielen Peili – iliep neleiM (Mind Mirror) succeeds and innovates on several fronts. It is presented through an AR system fashioned out of Oculus Rift, 2 webcams and Legos, giving the viewer “a first glimpse of the reality in full 3D”. For many, this would have been enough, but the game has also lot to offer content-wise. The minimalistic gameplay has the player search his surroundings for ominous piece of poetry put together procedurally. Slowly but surely the player slides towards hallucinations and madness, which are cleverly realized by rendering the cameras in Unity video textures and custom-made shaders. The growing feeling of schizophrenia is also amplified by whispers coming seemingly out of nowhere. This thought-provoking experience actually manages to induce a mild hypnotic effect.

COLORBLIND CANDY AWARD
Rolling Gecko Buddies Saga: Sweet As Candy Edition
YouTube video

Rolling Gecko Buddies Saga: Sweet As Candy Edition has a true game jam flavor in it. With its ridiculous yet sweet 80’s inspired interactive title screen, engaging and competitive gameplay – the game challenges the players to match their gecko’s color to the background by using DJ Hero controller’s Red, Green and Blue buttons. The game is an action-packed 2-player game complete with YEA BOE! and Airhorn -spam buttons to ensure the enjoyment of the players and spectators alike. This game is not recommended for the casual colorblind players.

THROUGH THE EMPATHY-GLASS AWARD
Virtual Blindness
YouTube video

Virtual Blindness offers a chilling experience of escape, danger and enemies, but doesn’t settle in that. In addition to the claustrophobic feel of going through the unknown corridors, it strips the player from one of the most vital senses: the sight. Through Oculus Rift and Razer Hydra player is successfully sent into the world of the blind, “seeing” only things that are touched or heard.

SOCIAL CUDDLY MECH AWARD
Super Mecha Siblings EXTREME
YouTube video

Super Mecha Siblings EXTREME’s concept and arrangement is an example of good party game design – the simple rules are just enough and not too much to amplify the social interplay of friends crammed in front of a single keyboard. The game provides a platform for different kinds of social play and inevitably the main game is played outside of the screen space. The cherry on the top of SMSE is its cuddly and warm take on mechs.

The Global Game Jam is over. The official global statistics will come later, but at the moment we can say that during last weekend people jammed games in over 480 locations in more than 70 countries.

In Finland, we had 14 locations, 644 jammers and 161 games. That is again another record from all of the three aspects. And as always, awesome games were made! You can relive the atmosphere by watching videos from the sites, checking out pictures from Facebook and, of course, by playing the games! Check out them all from the Games section and watch gameplay videos from our playlist.

Thank you everyone involved – the sponsors, the organizers, the jammers – and everyone else. Next year again!

All the locations are jamming and it’s now safe to reveal the theme!

The theme committee included:

• Annakaisa Kultima (chair)
• Yasmine Diab
• Olli Harjola
• Anna Kipnis
• Bryan Ma

Can’t wait to see what kind of games will come out of this theme!

All Finnish sites are hard at work. And you can follow the action!

Check out the cool Twitter and stream walls:
Twitter wall: http://finnishgamejam2014.com/twitter
Stream wall: http://finnishgamejam2014.com/streams

Location-based streams:
FGJ Bussi
FGJ Rovaniemi
FGJ Helsinki
FGJ Jyväskylä
FGJ Kajaani
FGJ Kuopio
FGJ Kymenlaakso
FGJ Lappeenranta
FGJ Pohjois-Karjala
FGJ Satakunta
FGJ Tampere
FGJ Turku
FGJ Ylivieska

While there’s still a few hours until the kick off in Finland, some sites are already jamming. Finland will join the GGJ14 in a while, and with more locations and jammers than ever!

Just when we thought we might have reached the peak of game jamming in Finland last year, the jam people showed us wrong. There’s over 700 registered jammers in 14 different locations!

FGJ14 spreads all over Finland: from Rovaniemi to Helsinki, from Satakunta to Pohjois-Karjala. And even more awesomely, there’s one site that will tour quite a few of these locations: a game jam bus! That’s right, one moving location, where some of the stars of Finnish game industry and game jam scene will make games on the road!

Without a doubt, this will be one helluva ride!

The Global Game Jam has a list of diversifiers that the game jam teams can use and restrict their game with. Unlike the theme that is compulsory and will be revealed on Friday, the diversifiers are completely voluntary and are revealed beforehand. Their main purposes of the diversifiers are to offer more challenge and constraints to experienced jammers and to make it easier to sort and find different types of games afterwards. More information on the diversifiers and how they are used can be found on the GGJ site.

The diversifiers for GGJ14 have been published and are:

1. Back to the 1885. The game could have been built and played in the 19th century.
2. Can You Come And Play? The game has a local multi-player mode.
3. Design, Create, Play. All the content in the game is procedurally created, including graphics and sound.
4. Hackontroller. The game must use a custom controller invented by the team, or use an existing controller in unconventional manner.
5. Homo Sapiens are Boring. The game is meant to be played by cats.
6. Honor Aaron Swartz. The game only uses materials found in the public domain.
7. I am who I want to be. The game has characters, but nothing in their design suggests a gender.
8. Inclusive. The game is specifically designed to be accessible to one or more groups of gamers with disabilities – vision, motor, hearing or cognitive impairments.
9. Rebels Learns it Better. In this educational game a hidden learning path is provided for those who oppose the given rules.
10. Round and Round. Rotation is one of the primary mechanics in the game.
11. The Ultimate Bechdel Test Survivor. The game survives all three conditions of the Bechdel test.
12. You Only Live Thrice. The player only has 3 lives and each level starts over when you die.
13. You Say it! The game utilises audio produced by the player either recording or instructing player to make sounds.

The keynote for Global Game Jam 2014 has been announced! This year the keynote will not feature one or two, but three inspirational speakers: Jenova Chen, Kaho Abe and Richard Lemarchand. See more info about the speakers from GGJ site and tune in by checking the previous keynotes from YouTube.

While there’s still a few days time to register, we have now reached over 600 registered jammers!

The registration is open until Monday, 20th of January 16:00. Some sites are full or getting full any minute, so the sooner you sign up, the better chance to get in!

There is still time to sign up to FGJ 2014, but that time is soon coming to an end. Make sure you sign up before 20th of January 16:00, that is when the registration form will be closed. The sooner the better; some sites are already full or almost full.