The Jammies are a celebration of all the amazing games produced for jams at Dev Night and in greater Philadelphia. A series of specialized awards are given out by a committee, and the Game of the Year is decided by popular vote. Jammies are our way of showcasing the tremendously creative and diverse game developers here in Philadelphia!
Hipster Hallmark: Breaker Blocks
With Breaker Blocks, Dev Night’s favorite laser blacksmith, Jake Vander Ende, has managed to distill classic card battle mechanics into a lightning-fast session of dominoes, if those dominoes looked like a LEGO set from 1986. The game’s muted cyberpunk aesthetic and streamlined game design was enough to be nominated for Best Multiplayer Indie Game at this year’s SXSW, arguably the quintessential hipster festival. This portable game of circuit building and sabotage has also been featured at the Smithsonian Art Museum, PAX East, and a handful of other festivals. Although, you know, you’ve probably never heard of them.
Game Of The Year: Aaron’s Quest
When someone as swell as Aaron Chapin leaves a community, it’s only natural for legends to be made about them. Aaron’s Quest is the greatest of those odes. This side-scrolling action game by Chris LaPollo, Bryan Pham, Kotaro Fujita and Edward Gauge puts you in the size 8 shoes of the expat engineer as he makes his way from Philadelphia to Germany. Not only does it reflect the energy that Aaron brought to every Dev Night, it’s streamlined design and keen execution encapsulate the development tenants he championed. It’s also a more fun than a barrel of code monkeys.
WTF?: Crabmando
For monthly dev night game jam, Ghost Crab Games pulled the theme of "Trashy, Exciting Shooter." The result is Crabmando, the futuristic adventures of a doctor tasked with secretly curing a louse ridden President of the United States. Blast crabs and dodge pimples as you make your way to the source of the infestation! Enjoy!
Dirtiest Pixel: Ghost Crab Games
The only Jammy to be awarded to a team for their entire body of game jam work, this award recognizes Ghost Crab Games for consistently delivering highly polished, fully realized, interesting games. It’s easy to skimp on “details”, like audio, menus, pre-roll, and humor when you’re jamming, but they never do. From shooing clandestine lovers out of bushes, to navigating elaborately-dressed animals around a gothic ballroom, the aesthetic and voice is strong and bizarre, and the quality is always well above game jam standards.
Rookies Of The Year: It’s Alive
Corey Arnold, Gregory Martin and Tabitha Arnold rolled into Dev Night and immediately started collecting awards. It’s no big deal. We’re cool with it. Doesn’t reflect on us veterans, really. Does it? I mean, we can’t really be mad. It’s Alive has awesome art, great game mechanics, and allows you to Frankenstein creatures together in horrifying and wondrous ways. We could totally make games this cool. If we wanted to.
Best Kids’ Game: Monster Want Burger
When you think Cipher Prime, you don’t think kids. Dain Saint was born a fully-realized mature human soul, and Will Stallwood rarely says or does anything even remotely appropriate for children. Their games are stunning and sophisticated, but not what you would describe as frivolous. Which is why it was so satisfying to see them playing in the very different space of kidxs’ games. Monster Want Burger combines the tried-and-true kid fun of playing with your food, knocking things down and MONSTERS. Plus, it’s got procedurally-named burgers and a cool website. Because that’s what kids dig.
Taking It All The Way: Resistor
The story of RESISTOR_ is the story of two hobbyist analog game enthusiasts, Nicole Kline and Anthony Amato, becoming a professional game dev company. From its humble beginnings winning the Oasis jam, RESISTOR_ went on to be chosen for the Indie MEGABOOTH at two PAX’s, and Boston FIG. The game’s Kickstarter was funded in 31 hours, and earned over 200% of its total goal. In addition, RESISTOR_ has garnered praise and accolades across the industry. It’s a fast and intense two-player competitive card game that relies on hidden information and tactical decision-making. Resist that.
The One That Got Away: Riposte
Camden Segal is Dev Night’s most decorated jammer. Over the past couple years, he’s collected six game jam trophies. He is both deeply respected and facetiously resented. Whatever nefarious tactics we suspect he uses, they always seem to work. His tactics this time were to create an abstract fencing game around a simple but ingenious mechanic that fits the mobile game interface perfectly.
Fucking Finally: Show Off
Shawn Pierre is one of Dev Night’s founders and one of it’s most talented members. He’s always tinkering with something, and Dev Night has seen and played many of his awesome creations, from party games to songs to tap dances to comedy routines. So why won’t he jam? Nobody know for sure, and our repeated haranguing doesn’t budge him. It took a dare to get him to finally compete. And when he did, the result was predictably amazing. Show Off is a multiplayer dancing game featuring charming geometrical animals in which players dance and try to match each other’s dance moves.