Quantum Wheel Report

Quantum Wheel, a game jam about quantum technology, was held in the heart of frozen Helsinki in February 15-17. The event was first of its kind, bringing independent game developers and physicists under one roof to innovate a union of games and quantum computing.

Finnish Game Jam is no stranger to quantum theory, having organized already four Quantum Game Jams in the past. Physicists have been invited to jam since the very first event, and for a couple of years jammers have had access to Quantum Black Box, a tool developed at the University of Turku. Quantum Wheel was the first event organized in collaboration with IBM as well as the first event to provide jammers with the IBM quantum computer Q Experience.

During the weekend Allas Sea Pool was inhabited by over 50 participants who made 10 games, all utilising quantum technologies in one way or another. The theme for the jam was “noise in the wheel”. The theme was inspired by the eponymous SkyWheel, where teams spent some time jamming above the city.

One team took a step further, bringing quantum computing into physical world. They designed a card game that teaches players how to program on a quantum computer, and an actual quantum computer will also decide who wins the game.

Quantum Wheel garnered international interest as well, and Wired UK wrote an article featuring the event. You can read it here: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/quantum-game-jam-finland-helsinki

Make sure to try the games, all of them are available at Itch.io: https://itch.io/jam/quantum-wheel

Here you can read more about IBM’s Q Experience:
https://www.research.ibm.com/ibm-q/

Thank you for everyone for an amazing and unique event!

Quantum Wheel 15-17 Feb 2019

We are proud to have a new exciting jam in February 2019!

Quantum Wheel is a three day game jam at the heart of Helsinki aimed at creating games based on Quantum Physics, both for education and research.

The event continues the Quantum Game Jam series, and it is a collaboration with quantum physicists from the University of Turku, Aalto University and from IBM Zurich, who will participate in the jam. The list of participants includes also many experienced game developers and jammers from Finland and around the globe.

In this jam, the participants create games that utilize Quantum Black Box (tool developed at the University of Turku) and/or IBM quantum computer Q Experience. Otherwise the teams are free to choose their games’ directions and technologies used.

The jam will have around 50 participants and will be located at the cozy Sea Allas Pool in the center of Helsinki. Additional inspiration for the jam will be extracted from riding the SkyWheel Helsinki!

The website is open, go see it here: http://www.quantumgamejam.com/quantumwheel/

Quantum Wheel
15-17 February 2019
Allas Sea Pool / SkyWheel Helsinki
Katajanokanlaituri 2
00160 Helsinki
Finland


Allas Sea Pool is a gardenlike oasis in the heart of Helsinki with a large pool area and magnificent saunas. In addition to swimming, bathing in the saunas and good food, Allas Sea Pool offers many options for wellness. Spending a perfect day at Allas means relaxing, lingering, enjoying with all senses, both the body and the mind – in the middle of Helsinki, next to the Market square, every day of the year.
Website: https://www.allasseapool.fi/en/

SkyWheel Helsinki is an Observation Wheel is situated in Katajanokka, one of the most beautiful locations in Helsinki, right next to the market square. From 40 meters high you may see over the city, sea and surrounding islands.
Website: http://www.skywheel.fi/en/

#FGJ19 Report

Another FGJ wrapped up, thank you everyone!

Global Game Jam weekend has come and gone and we are one jam experience richer. 48 hours is a short time to develop a game from scratch, and every year we are amazed at what the jammers are able to do within such a limited timeframe!

This year in Finland we had a total of 884 jammers who developed 218 games. You can find all the games on the Global Game Jam page: 
https://globalgamejam.org/2019/games?title=&country=FI

On a global scale there were in total 47 000 jammers who made 9000 games at 860 sites in 113 countries, which makes this Global Game Jam the biggest game jam ever held! 10 new countries joined the fun, as sites were set up in Azerbaijan, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Myanmar, Namibia, and Rwanda.

The global theme for GGJ19 was “what home means to you”, and jammers incorporated it in their games in countless different ways: there was homesickness, homelessness and house parties, to name a few.

We were lucky to have amazing national and local sponsors this year as well. We want to extend a big thank you to all sponsors one more time, we couldn’t have made #FGJ19 this awesome without them

The national gold sponsor was Supercell.

The national silver sponsor was Veikkaus Game Studio.

Thank you again everyone who attended or followed the action through our streams and social media, it was a blast of a weekend!

See you at the next jam!