This October we finally had the kick-off of The Jörniverse, and opened our doors officially to a bunch of game devs!
We had people visiting from within Sweden, plus Germany, Denmark, and Czechia. At its peak we had 15 people sleeping in our accommodation building.
It felt great to finally run a game dev retreat, with our rooms full of game devs and lots of activities happening organically.
Finally turning The Jörniverse sign on
For the launch we had a little ribbon-cutting ceremony where we turned on our flashy new light for The Jörniverse!
Pictured are Dani, Em, Jahdah, Hugo, André, Eddie, Melwin, Tobias, Maya, Arvid, Angie and Daniel.
An event-filled Kick-off
To mark the occassion we hosted some events, starting with a kick-off at our local events hotel.
There we played bowling, pool, darts, and sat around an open fire roasting sausages & marshmallows. It was super cozy!
We also had some trips out, like one to an abandoned steam train in nearby Kusfors.
And a visit from Arctic Game, who brough along pizza!
Especially cool to see was a bunch of events being hosted by our guests.
We had game playthroughs where people took turns with voice acting, lots of amazing collaborative cooking, and group forest walks - to name a few!
Our Debut Game Jam
And the main event, of course, was our debut game jam!
Our guest Jahdah kindly hosted the jam and came up with the theme of “Tracks” to inspire the game devs!
Here are some of the games that were made. In order:
Pitstop Rush - a WarioWare-like F1 pitstop game)
Redolent Woods - play as a mother wolf following the scent of her cub)
Trolley Rolley Roulette - a chaotic twist on the trolley problem)
Toe Beans - find and identify animal tracks in the woods)
They’re all available on the jam’s itch.io page
News Coverage
Our local newspaper, Norran, also kindly attended the jam too to catch up with the jammers!
They interviewed Jahdah, who organised the jam, as well as André, who travelled in from Germany to attend.
The article is available online here.
Thanks to everyone involved!
And just want to say thanks to everyone involved! We had such a lovely time.
To end the event we had a group barbecue, as we had just finished setting up our very own fire pit!
It was awesome.
We’re so looking forward to hosting more events like this!
So please stay tuned for more news.
The best way to stay up-to-date with Jörniverse happenings is to join our Discord
(check our social links in the top right for an invite link)
