Don’t worry, we’ll return to our regularly scheduled programming very, very soon. Earlier today the Scottish leg of the Global Game Jam, hosted at Glasgow Caledonian University, wrapped up and proved that a fully-functioning game can be produced in 48 hours.

What became of the weekend that 23 hopefuls from across the world (we had an American or two!) spent producing a game? The answers may surprise you…

The six games that came out of Scotland’s leg of the Global Game Jam were each very different, and hugely original considering the amount of time the teams had on their hands (or lack thereof). Some of them were weird, some of them wonderful, but they were all brilliant. What’s more, the judges, hailing from a bunch of game developers, had a lot to say too. If you want to play any of these games, you can! Just click on their names below to reach their download page; well worth checking them out…

• Two Become One: A 2D Flash platformer, reminiscent of Ico in concept but more cartoonish in style. Controlling two young lovers holding hands, you must relinquish your grip on your partner to climb platforms and pull switches to continue your progress. The thing is, leave them alone for too long and the world begins to darken and become overcome with poison; if it’s ruined, it’s game over.
  • The judges’ overall view was that it was original, friendly and was good at getting you attached to the characters. Which were adorable. It snatched second place in the contest.

• Jarhead: A puzzle/survival game. Spheres are dropped into a beaker of water and to score you must feed the spheres with ‘growth’ and ’shrink’ seeds, dragged into the beaker with your mouse. As the spheres are submerged in the water they affect the height of the water. If the water is depleted entirely or spills over the edge, it’s game over.
  • Already highly-polished (and, incredibly, ported from the initial Mac version to Windows all in 48 hours), this really grabbed the judges’ attentions. It snatched first place, even though I couldn’t play it to save myself.

• Planet Om Nom: A flOw-esque puzzler developed in Microsoft’s XNA environment. You control a solar flare and increase its mass by either rolling over asteroids or reeling them in with your gravitational pull using a 360 controller. Due to time constraints, some features (like a survival timer and over-consumption of asteroids) couldn’t be implemented.
  • Because of the lack of substantial gameplay save for the basics, the judges were keen to praise the initial idea but remarked that more needed to be done.

More games over the page…

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