Jam for Change was a game jam that took place during London Games Festival on Saturday 7th and Sunday the 8th of April. It was an event in support of the charity women’s aid, who provide services and give and help to women and children who are victims of violence and domestic abuse.
Anyone could attend the event and come together to make art, music and games that would be bundled together and sold to raise money for the charity. A number of organisations help run the event such as partners from Women in Games, BAME in Games and DevSpace who are all awesome, seriously.
I unfortunately missed the meet-up but I wanted to catch up and play all the games that sprouted up from the jam. The theme of Jam for Change was party games and out of the twenty five games and the other digital art entries I have chosen a small handful of the games to highlight. All the games here are pocket-sized, take under a minute and just completely coincidentally many of the games feature cats! All of the games submitted are available to play over on the jam’s page on itch so you should definitely check the whole collection out.
Save the Cats
In Save the Cats you use your mouse to move two kids and their umbrella as you attempt to catch as many falling cats as you can. I particularly like the music and visuals of this game, Save the Cats has a cutesy bubblegum look I found myself replying it for the great music.
Dump or Hold
Dump or Hold is a quick mini-game that tests your nerves, keep your eyes on the line graph and press space when the line is at its highest. Hold your nerve or dump your assets before the market plummets and make some money for your cute cat friend. This game is super tight, with cute pixel art and great music.
Pour the Juice
In Pour the Juice you play as an elephant who is having a party and is attempting to full his guests glasses up with juice. The player controls the elephants trunk with the mouse and must carefully pour the juice without getting any on their cat friend. It’s a fun a cute game, and I am a big fan of Mrs.Giraffe’s curly straw.
Ouroboros
Ouroboros is a multi-player game for up to ten players and had taken inspiration from the game Snake. Move your body and collect heart to extend your length and watch as hilarity ensues and you try and avoid your own tail and everyone else.
Flippin’ Felines
More cats in peril! In Flippin’ Felines, you use space bar to flip the falling cats so that they land on their feet. Why are there cat’s falling from the sky? Who knows! This game is quick and funny with my favorite thing being the cats sprinting off the screen when they hand on their feet.
Find Each Other
Find Each Other is a two player game where players must find each other in a crowd of moving people. I really like the communication potential with the other player in this game, it’s quite relaxing and since there is no time limit you can take your time.
#art
#art is a multiplayer game for one player up to as many people as you can fit around a keyboard where each person presses one key to control their own colourful pencil. The game then tells the players an object to draw and then given thirty seconds to draw it.
I hope you enjoyed this mini-selection and be sure to check out Jam for Change next year and think about participating. If you would like to donate to women’s aid they have a donation page here.
Rachel Watts
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