Saudi girl gamers compete in Global Game Jam weekend

RIYADH: The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is happening this weekend January 26-28, and Saudi Arabia is going all out this year with four registered locations in the running, including the first women-only event.
With two locations in Riyadh, one in Jeddah, and one in Al-Khobar, this marks the Kingdom’s most active year in GGJ to date.
Founded by the International Game Developers’ Association in 2009, GGJ holds a Guinness World Record for the largest game development event ever. Developers and game enthusiasts of all skill levels are invited to participate in the world’s largest simultaneous game dev event, which will last the entire weekend.
Participants will be given the year’s theme and, after being assigned to a team, they will work toward creating a finished, playable game before the event is over.
Abdulmalik Zubailah, a member of the Den of Devs group and one of the organizers of the Jeddah event said: “We’re incredibly excited for this opportunity and can’t wait to see how it turns out. Both we, the organizers, and the community have always wanted to do game jams in Jeddah, but they never really worked out. Then one of our members suggested GGJ, and now we’re finally getting our chance.”
This year’s GGJ also boasts the first women-only event held at King Saud University’s female campus in Riyadh. The event is being organized by Hackathon Arabia, who are hosting the male meet up in Riyadh, with GCON supervising the women’s event.
“We are thrilled to be hosting over 100 female game developers this year,” said Najla Al-Ariefy, organizing member of GCON. “We hope to create a collaborative and fun environment for our burgeoning community of female game devs.”