Wrexham gamers created over 20 unique concepts from start to finish as part of a 48-hour annual global gaming event.

Wrexham Glyndwr University took part in the Global Game Jam (GGJ) for the tenth year running – with more than 70 local people taking part.

The aim of the event is to encourage innovation and experimentation, as well as to connect people from across the world as they aim to develop video games from scratch during the weekend. In total, more than 39,000 people took part in the jam globally. As well as creating computer games, three of the Wrexham participants created board and card games.

GGJ is a regular fixture in the calendar at Wrexham Glyndwr University, who are the longest-participating game jam representative in Wales – and now one of the main global hubs for the GGJ organisation.

Richard Hebblewhite, who is the GGJ Global Regional Organiser and Programme Leader for Game Development, Game Design & Enterprise and Game Art at Wrexham Glyndwr University, said the weekend was “an immense success”.

“What an absolutely awesome weekend – we are all still very much on a high from how this year’s jam went. In total, 7,606 games were created – with 39,483 jammers registered from 108 countries – and we in Wrexham were part of that, I feel an enormous sense of pride about that,” he said.

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“What makes me feel particularly proud is the fact that GGJ is all about bringing people and their incredible ideas together to experiment, collaborate and learn together. It isn’t a competition, it’s an opportunity for people to bring their concepts to life – whether that’s a computer game, board or card game, it really is down to the individual.”

During this year’s GGJ event, Wrexham Glyndwr University also launched the UK’s first Global Game Jam Next (GGJN) site, which is aimed at young creators, aged between five and 16 years old.

Richard added: “Launching the UK’s first GGJN site at our university was pretty amazing, it meant we spent Friday and Saturday teaching and creating games with a number of families from across the region – that was pretty cool knowing that we were inspiring and providing a memorable experience for the next generation of gamers and innovators.”