Hackathon targets aspiring young game designers

AMMAN — Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT) from Thursday to Saturday hosted the first installment of the Game Development Hackathon 2020 (GDH), which aims to guide university students in designing, developing and marketing video games and enable them to establish entrepreneur projects in the video game industry. 

The three-day workshop was supported by the EU through their Jordanian Action for the Development of Enterprises project. It was also organised by Jordan University of Science and Technology, Rababa games, Jordan E-Games (JEG), PSUT, REKT Gaming Club, Leaders International and ACM Student Chapter at PSUT. 

The video game industry is one of the biggest industries worldwide, and many countries rely on the video game industry economically, Creative Director at Rababa Games Baraa Odeh told the Jordan Times on Saturday. 

In 2019 alone, the video game industry’s earnings stood at $152.1 billion worldwide, while in the same year, earnings of the movies and music industries stood at $43 billion and $20.4 billion respectively, Odeh added. 

He also said that the event paves the way for students to obtain jobs in the game industry, as demand for professionals in the industry is increasing compared to traditional jobs.

“We try to fill the gap in the learning system by exposing the participants to a work-related atmosphere,” Odeh said, underscoring that students were encouraged to design, programme, build and market their own games.

Speakers provided both theoretical and practical demonstration, aiding students in applying learnt material step by step in the workshop to build a successful model of a game, E-sports Community Manager at JEG Mohammed Kanakri said.

Participants were teamed up in groups that worked together and submitted their final product to judges, Kanakri said. 

He added that the event will be hosted at Yarmouk University in Irbid in the coming days to spread awareness about the game industry not only in Amman but also in the northern parts of the Kingdom.

Dania Emad, a software engineer student at Applied Science University and a participant in the event, said that she enjoyed the information provided, especially given that it was combined with practical experience.

She also said that GDH led her in the “right direction” in the game programming industry, as she “always wanted to design video games but didn’t know where to start”.