On the 7th of June, the closing session and award ceremony of the Game Jam PACT, the 1st Game Jam in Alentejo, took place.

The event benefited from the sponsorship of relevant companies in the area at national and regional level, such as Recatpig , which is also part of the eGames Lab, Goma Development , company inPACT, Chip7 from Évora and also Pizzaria Álamos.

After the 2nd of June, in which the 34 participants were challenged to develop a functional video game in just 10 hours, using the Alentejo as a theme, the “jammers” had the opportunity to get to know each other’s projects and listen to feedback of the jury.

The panel of judges included: Marco Bettencourt , CEO and Founder of Redcatpig, André Lascas , iOS Programmer at Goma Development, António Vieira, CEO at AloUniverse, Paulo Maldonado , Architect and Designer, Director of the Master in Design and Full Professor at the University of Évora , and Diogo Teixeira , Founder and Graphics Programmer at Amplify Creations .

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes, delivered in technological vouchers and gaming accessories, were awarded to groups that had as reference the words “cante alentejano”, “rebanho” and “plates”, respectively.

Most of the students were from higher education and attended the University of Évora, however the initiative also included students from the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria and the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon . Some secondary school students from Évora also participated, namely from the Gabriel Pereira , Severim de Faria and EPRAL schools .

The event featured speeches by Soumodip Sarkar, Executive President of PACT, and Tiago Teotónio Pereira , Executive Member of CCDR Alentejo , as well as a few words from the 3 mentors who accompanied the groups throughout the 2nd of June. Sérgio Concha, Professor of Programming and Informatics at EPRAL , Wijnand Merkens , Indie Game Developer, and Pedro Soares, Computer Programming student at EPRAL and curricular intern at PACT, were the names chosen to clarify and help the groups in this challenge.

Game Jam PACT took place within the framework of PACT’s participation in the eGames Lab project , supported by the PRR – Recovery and Resilience Plan, and by the Next Generation EU European Funds. The action was the first initiative of its kind promoted in the region and materializes PACT’s new commitment to the promotion and construction of an eGames industry, at regional level, associated with which future activities are already planned.