MatLab – GameJam 2021

GameJam! MatLab? MatLab-GameJam?!

On the weekend of 22 – 24.10. there was a digital GameJam of a different kind. A GameJam with a programming language that is mainly designed for linear algebra with matrices (hence the name Matrix Laboratory) and almost not at all for interactivity, which is actually the cornerstone of video games. Nevertheless, we ventured out and tried to think in terms of matrices.

Friday evening started with the usual introduction: welcome and brainstorming for ideas. The brainstorming was a bit reserved this time, because all present could not really estimate the capacities of MatLab yet. That’s why at 8pm there was a short introduction by Sarah about games in MatLab, where the basics like game loop, keyboard input and graphical representation were introduced. At the end the game jammers had a small template to build their game on. The following two days the participants were then busy discovering MatLab’s weaknesses and strengths that work for games. Sunday afternoon, the results were then presented.

Here you can download the games. Screenshots of the games are below: