Global Game Jam®️ and DeepWell DTx are excited to congratulate the winners of the First Annual May Day Mental Health Game Jam! The jam produced over 100 entries aimed at helping people to cope with and gain some relief from mental health conditions. You can play all of them for yourself on our Itch.io page. You can also watch our Executive Director Tim Cullings play through all of the entries on our YouTube channel.
We were excited and grateful that game industry personality and host Alanah Pearce announced the winners on her YouTube channel and interviewed the First Prize winners.
Taking First Prize was The Inner Room, developed by The Peruvian Team of: Alberto Aznarán Vargas, Mateo Alayza Moncloa, Pablo Carrillo Tejada, Gabriel Alayza Moncloa, Jaime Chirif Watanabe, José Carhuana Turpo, Bryan Berru Novoa y Joaquín Concha Ávila.
According to our judges it is '..a great presentation for some dark themes. Well executed art, story, and interface.'
The Inner Room was also given the Best Audio award.
Taking Second Prize was Bíotópico, developed by Everyday Lemonade: Foster Douglas and Corey Zanotti.
Our judges said, "With ever-increasing integration of relevant sensors into today's cars, coupled with the fact that we spend so much time in our vehicles (and much of that time is wasted/stressful) - this sort of design could make a lot of sense as an onboard relaxation program. Drivers could engage this at the end of a journey to decompress after a daily commute."
Third Prize in this year's jam was awarded to Fumble, developed by Samuli Pietikäinen and Geoffrey Mugford.
Judges said, "..it does effectively create awareness and empathy for social anxiety."
Balance It Out was presented with The Most Educational award, developed by Abigail Martin - Mental Health Consultant, Design, 2D Art & Voice Over and Luke Amer - Programming & Design.
The Most Innovative award went to Can You?, developed by Marc Louie (devbymarc).
The Most Engaging award was presented to Mockingzen, developed by Alessandro Pezzetti/Havana24.
Bottles was presented with the Most Accessible award, developed by Zack Rock and Tom Matney.
The Best Art award was granted to Mood Farm developed by Programmer – Lyudvig Vitovskiy, Artist – Yo_You, Game Writer – Varvara Gorokh (khorogvar), Musician – Tjalvi, Sound Designer FMOD – Lesha Lozhkin.
Thanks to everyone who participated in and created games for the First Annual May Day Mental Health Game Jam! There were so many great entries this year that will hopefully help people who are dealing with mental health conditions and educate others who are looking to learn about them. A huge thanks to our partners at DeepWell DTx for sponsoring this game jam and bringing the concept of therapeutic games to the forefront of the mental health discussion.