26 Feb 2018

## FOR IMMEIDATE RELEASE ##

Peterborough, Ontario - February 25, 2018 - PTBO Game Jam 04 has wrapped up! Given the theme of “Pirates Without Borders” a total of 71 jammers successfully developed games at the Kawartha Trades & Technology Centre the weekend of February 24th-25th! The 32-hour jam went by like a flash!

“PTBO Game Jam 04 was a great experience for everyone involved. It wouldn’t have been possible without the team of amazing volunteers, and the expanding community support we receive. I’m excited to see where things go as we continue to expand our audience. Watching our youth educational block grow has been one of the most rewarding things for me. Talking with other parents and hearing their stories, it really motivates me to keep pushing forward.” - PTBO Game Jam founder & organizer Matthew Davey.

THINK OF THE CHILDREN

Our educational blocks, which teach the fundamentals of game development to jammers young and old, were a resounding success! Our youth educational block was a particular area of growth. It saw 8 children and their parents successfully recreating the classic arcade game Frogger using MIT’s educational programming language Scratch. Special thanks to student volunteer Ethan Brodie who assisted greatly during the youth block!

GAME JAM: LIVE

Our popular livestream returned for PTBO Game Jam 04! Drawing in over 600 viewers over the 32-hours of the jam, jammers were featured to showcase their game development process to a worldwide audience!

FUN AND GAMES WHILE MAKING GAMES

New to PTBO Game Jam events, jammers were treated to the opportunity to de-stress in an epic Putt-for-Swag event and a Mario Kart championship! Jammers put their mini-golf skills to the test to win awesome swag provided by Unity, before taking the wheel in a series of races to be Mario Kart champ! Jairo Orlandi Neto was the winner of the Mario Kart championship and retains the highly treasured bragging rights until the next PTBO Game Jam! Our special thanks and seal of approval goes to Ben Pinto for providing live commentary casting during the races!

A LITTLE EXTRA LOVE

Participants have until March 2, 2018 at 11:59PM to polish their games and submit them on Itch.io. The community will then review and vote on which game they determine is the best game of PTBO Game Jam 04.

WE LOVE OUR SPONSORS

PTBO Game Jam 04 wouldn’t have had such a successful weekend without the support from our sponsors! Our love goes out to dotBunny, Fleming College, Funky Rustic, Community Futures Peterborough, Greater Peterborough Innovation Cluster, and Unity. Of course you can’t have a game jam without pizza, Gotta Havva Pizza were our partners on that front!

PTBO Game Jam History


Matthew Davey
Founder & Organizer

With the goal of fostering a local game development community to the benefit of future generations of game developers, Matthew Davey, the founder of Peterborough-based game development studio dotBunny, organized and hosted the inaugural not-for-profit PTBO Game Jam 01 in August 2016 at the Holiday Inn Peterborough-Waterfront. That event saw 11 games created.

Based on the response to, and success of, that initial foray, follow-up events continue to be held with continual growth and reach.

With the organization of PTBO Game Jam 04, a team of industry professionals continues to work together towards the continued success of the PTBO Game Jam to the benefit of the industry as a whole as well as participants.

It’s estimated that more than 19 million Canadians identify themselves as “gamers,” participating, at some level, in an industry which is expected to grow to a startling $100 billion market value come 2019.

Contact Information

Matthew Davey

matthew.davey@dotbunny.com

  • PTBO Game Jam 05
    Postponed