STUDENTS from the Mapua University advanced to the second stage of the global computer game development competition Game Jam+ with their entry “Shackles”.

Game Jam+ 2020 participants have to create a game relating to the theme set by the organizers. It is one of the biggest game development hackathons with more than 2,000 participants.

Team Shackles consists of third year entertainment and multimedia computing students — Alexander Balingao, Daniel Tala, Kayle Marfil, and Kurt Varela.

“This is the first time we entered a competition of this scale. We will surely benefit from the knowledge and experience we get from this competition in the long run,” Balingao said.

“The pixel, platformer puzzle game we developed entails two twins cursed by greed, embarks on an adventure in their hopes of fixing the curse laid upon them, wherein should they separate from each other too far, a curse activates that ends them both,” the team explained.

The competition has four stages. The theme this year is “connection’.

Stage one, which is the national qualifier event, took place on October 9 to 11 wherein teams from Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa competed against each other.

In the second stage, winners in each region will go through an online acceleration program and will be mentored by experienced game developers from around the world. This takes place from November 2020 to January 2021.

The third stage will be held in February next year, while the world grand finals will happen in May 2021 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.