Resounding success of the Level Up Game Jam 2024!

The 3rd edition of the Level Up Game Jam 2024 has been a success with the presentation of 94 incredible games . Thanks to the 573 participants, the 16 sponsors, the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Spanish Government and the Department of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya for making this event within the Level Up Pre-incubation Program an unforgettable experience!

On this occasion, the theme chosen was Collective Intelligence vs Collective Madness. Un tema complicado en un inicio para proponer ideas, pero que finalmente dio muchísimo juego a nuestros participantes.

Our Game Jam 2024 kicked off on Sunday, June 30 on Discord, where the nearly 600 participants came together to form the teams. The next day, it was the opening Gala and the theme was revealed: Collective Intelligence vs Collective Madness. Daniel Santigosa (Director and producer of IndieDevDay) gave a very interesting presentation with tips and tricks for those who wanted to register for the Level Up Game Jam 2024.

With this, our teams would have a week to prepare an entire project from 0, overcoming the obstacles and adversities that this entails, to be able to deliver it through our itch.io page before Sunday, July 7, at 8:00 p.m. as the deadline.

Our jury was testing and deliberating on the video games presented, which have been no more and no less than 94! They needed a lot of coffee to be able to taste them all in a week (thank goodness they always have plenty of desire and motivation!), since this past Sunday, July 14, the winners were revealed at the Closing Ceremony, which we could enjoy on several online platforms from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Professional Mentoring

During the week of the event, participants were able to receive mentoring in different areas, carried out through Zoom:

• Concept Art & 2D Art with Adrià Najar
• Environments & 3D Art with Albert Rebollo.
• Game & Level Design with Vicente Quesada.
• Game Design with Roger Montserrat.
• Marketing & Publishing with Lara I. Rodríguez.
• Unity programming with Francisco Ruiz.
• Unreal Engine programming with Ignasi Rivero.
• Godot program with Rafa Laguna.

Live Streaming and Constant Communication

The games featured were livestreamed by renowned streamers during the judging week and post-jam week, highlighting key moments such as the keynote and awards ceremony.

The main communication platform was our Discord server , a community with almost 1800 game devs, where participants could form teams, chat and share their progress. (If you want to be part of our community, you can register by clicking here 🔗)

On social networks we could see that many of you shared your progress using the hashtag #levelup_gamejam in publications. Thank you very much for all your participation and support!

Awards & Categories

This year, more than €6,000 in prizes were distributed, distributed in various categories (click on the name of each of the projects to learn more about them 🎮😉):

• General Category – Best Video Game
  • 🥇1st Prize – Stay – 📜 “Stay away from the shadows. Stay in the light. Stay together. Stay alive. STAY. ” – Members: Adriá Bravo (music), Álvaro Pozo (art), Bru Corbella (music, SFX and CAT localization), Cristian Palos (art and narrative), Enso Spagnuolo (art), Germán Castilla (programming), Lorién Portella (design), Quim Colobrans (programming) and Silvia Lozano (ENG & ESP localization).
  • 🥈2nd Prize – Silva Insania – Turn-based tactical roguelike in which humanity must fight against collective madness. – Member: Endorth (Roger Vila as Dev alone).
  • 🥉3rd Prize – Shaman Steps – Short puzzle game – Members: Daniel Moreno (programming and design) and Jacobo Cáceres (music).
• Other Categories
  • 📖Best Narrative – Echoes of Society – 📜 “You have been sent to investigate the events of an armaments factory to investigate a tragedy.” – Members: Arianeé Ruiz (concept art, 3D character design and character and environment texturing) Guillem Llovera (programming, sound and lighting), Kristian Gueorguiev (environment modeling and texturing), Marta Montes (concept art, 3D character design, rigging and 3D animation) and Pau Ruano (producer and designer).
    • Special Mention: Welcome to Beehive High School.
  • 🎨Best Art – Sewing Life – Members: Jordi Tur (programming and design), José Antonio M. (art and animation), Judith Ariana (art and animation) Marco Baldan (programming and design) and William Gómez (musical composition).
    • Special Mention: Skaters’ Deck.
  • ✨Most Innovative – Crawly Adventures – Member: Enzo (Dev only).
    • Special Mention: Time is running out.
  • 🎵Best Sound – This is Conga – 📜 “Make the best conga of the Middle Ages” – Members: Adriana Pino (2D art), Alejandro Rey (design, rigging and animation), Elisenda Ochoa (conceptual art and 2D art), Mario Alexander Parraguez (music and sound design) and Néstor Álvarez (programming).
  • 💡Best Use of Theme – Madnometer – Members: Alba Ramos (art, design and narrative) and Héctor Rubio (programming, design and narrative).
    • Special Mention: City Rush.
  • 👨 👦👧 👨 Audience Award – Demonios & Descartes – Members: Alejandro Garatea (programming), Andrés Alario (sound design), Beatriz Lago (programming), Darío de Benito (programming), Gary Recondo (programming), Juan Pablo Pulgarín (music), Juan Rodríguez (art and design) and Ruby Agamez (art and design).
  • 🏅Best Itch.io Page of Jam 1 – The Cradle: Awakening – Members: David Church (programming and design), Júlia Moyano (art) and María Milán (music).
  • 🏅Best Jam 2 Itch.io Page – Insanity Board – 📜 “Have I ever told you the definition of insanity? Don’t see Loki again” –Members: Francisco Javier Carrasco (art), Francisco Javier Rica (design), Guillermo Villanueva (music and sound), Gustavo Mendoza (programmer), Marc Nicolás (art), Mercè Fenenko (art) and Víctor Reverte (programming).
  • 🏅Best Itch.io page of Jam 3 – Skaters’ Deck – Skater’s Deck is a deck-builder where you can combine cards and unlock tricks and improve your skaters! – Members: Iusitano and Néstor Feijoo (art and design).

Level Up Game Jam Sponsors

We also don’t want to forget the wonderful sponsors who have provided the fantastic prizes that have been distributed this year. Thank you for supporting us one more year:

• Aeternum Games Studios
• Beetested
• Chloroplast Games
• Dolores Entertainment
• Gaming.cat
• GTM
• Happy Path Lab
• Indie Dev Day
• Kaibun
• Kinda Brave Entertainment
• Kronnect
• Make Good Art
• Spain Game Devs
• Tesura Games
• Troglobytes Games

We want to thank you!

Yes, once again, they are never enough to be able to express all our gratitude for this great reception, since we have practically doubled the participants of the 2nd edition and you have been 5 times more than you were in the 1st edition 🥴🤩😍

These signs of motivation and self-improvement mean that we can continue to improve every day with events like this, such as the Game Jam, creating a perfect space and community to network, learn, test the knowledge acquired, create and expand your portfolios and gain experience in this world of video games of ours. And always promoting teamwork and creativity, essential to succeed in the sector.

We’d love to see you in the next one! 👋🥰

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