At the third EYA Game Jam from 30 June to 2 July 2017 at Graz University of Technology, 40 young people have collaborated in teams to create innovative solutions to the societal themes "Water" and " Family", using the latest Virtual Reality (VR) technologies. An international expert jury with seven renowned experts, among them Prof. Stefanie Lindstaedt (CEO Know-Center) has then selected and awarded the best ideas and prototypes from the final pitches of the teams.
After the Know-Center had already been a partner for the European Youth Award (EYA) in 2013, the Know–Center CEO Prof. Stefanie Lindstaedt, who has also been a mentor for the EYA Contest since 2016, has now been additionally appointed as a member of the international expert jury for the EYA Game Jam 2017. The seven members of this interdisciplinary jury were given the task to jointly evaluate the prototypes, ideas and games developed at the Game Jam and finally award a winner: “Ship Happens!” was selected as the best game prototype. In this two-player VR-Game, one player has to escape from a sinking ship in cooperation with another player who has a map of the ship. The well-developed implementation of the creative idea as well as the multiplayer component – which rarely exists in VR-games – was convincing enough to sway the judges.
An overview of all submissions at the Game Jam can be found here.
Read the official press release of the European Youth Award as a follow-up to the event.
Here are a few impressions from the event:
Photo credit: Matthias Rauch, www.MrFoto.at
