Imperial War Museum Jam (16-17 December 2019)

The Imperial War Museum Jam (IWM Jam) was a two-day event open to final-year students from Abertay University’s School of Design and Informatics. Fifty-six students, organised into eleven teams, took part in the jam hosted within on-campus game development labs. The culmination of the IWM Jam was a play-party in which students were afforded the opportunity to present, and gain feedback on, their games from their peers.

The context of the IWM Jam was supported by the IWM Duxford, who provided information about exhibits and curated spaces within their museum dedicated to the history of aircraft from the First World War to present day. The IWM Jam challenged students to consider ways in which games and digital media could be used to enhance a visitor’s experience at IWM Duxford: firstly, to recreate and recount the history of the museum’s artefacts; secondly, to integrate digital technology with real-world exhibits as a way of encouraging users to engage more vividly with the museum’s space and physical artefacts; and thirdly, to use a “retro aesthetics” aesthetic.

Cold Commander 1991 (Sam Hodson, Craig Troup, Liam Rendall, Luis Massarella, Duncan Burgess and Adam Bari)

“Missions include recon, bombing, supply, defence and air superiority. Each mission has a brief and some requirements to give inform the player on the best aircraft form the mission.  You can choose from five aircraft which have stats showing their specialisations.”

Instruments of Destruction (Michal Wiatrowski, James Meek, Dan Cavanagh and Calum Robb)

“A tactics-driven game in which the player assumes the role of an airforce commander and must choose the appropriate aircraft to send on missions.”

Plane Sim (Daniel McLaughlin, Keira Brannigan and Allanna Maitland)

“The focus [of Plane Sim] is on … learning about the aircraft in the museum - how they differ from one another - as well as developing critical and strategic thinking.”