Alongside studying a subject I am passionate about and the life experience gained from living away from home for the first time, another notable aspect of the student experience at the University of Sheffield is getting involved with societies. Sheffield societies tend to offer the compelling combination of vibrant communities, the opportunity to actively engage in your areas of interest and even the chance to discover new passions. Recently, one remarkable society event was Shefjam.

Shefjam is the annual game development competition hosted by the Computer Science Society (CompSoc). The criteria for participating in ShefJam is straightforward. Essentially, anyone who has a CompSoc membership can participate, even if coding is not your area of expertise, you would still be able to contribute towards the storylines, sounds, and game art. For anyone interested in ShefJam, CompSoc recommend looking at the Unity game engine beforehand, but during the competition the committee does provide help and support.

This year marked CompSoc’s eighth Shefjam which ran from February 11-13 and the competition’s theme was “infinity”. Prizes for the winning games include games that best interpret the theme and the funniest interpretation of infinity itself.

ShefJam, due to its nature, was quite challenging to organise, a job held by a voluntary subcommittee taken from the CompSoc committee. This subcommittee, over the months, met regularly in order to discuss the most suitable locations, food ideas, and prizes, and ensured that everything was organised safely. ShefJam is particularly time-consuming and expensive to organise, but the hard work put in by the subcommittee allows it to continue being accessible and free each year. 

CompSoc would like to give praise to Felix and the rest of the ShefJam committee who ensured that ShefJam ran smoothly from the planning stages to the end. Because of this, it is no surprise that one of the committee members ended up featuring as a retexture in one game’s background. That game ended up winning the funniest game category.

However, ShefJam is more than just a coding and video game design competition. In fact, throughout the weekend, the subcommittee organised a variety of social activities spanning from retro gaming sessions to virtual reality activities, giving a well-deserved break to the teams and opportunity to socialise. 

Safety remained paramount throughout. CompSoc guaranteed  that, despite the Covid restrictions, the event ran as safely as possible, posing an extra challenge in organising ShefJam. Asking for proof of a negative test upon entry was part of that safeguarding strategy.

I took part in ShefJam only as a guest and came away with a positive impression from the time I was there. My interactions were limited to observing and occasionally talking with participants, but overall, I had a pleasant experience. I found the dedication that each team put into the games insightful, and I would say that the most enjoyable aspect was seeing the different interpretations of the infinity theme and how every interpretation created game variety. All the games were very entertaining and CompSoc currently plans to publish the games created in ShefJam on the society’s website.

I would recommend taking part in ShefJam if you have an interest in coding and video games development.It is such a worthy experience to put knowledge into practice in a challenging environment, because ShefJam is demanding – if you decide to take part, be willing to spend sleepless hours working. I am really looking forward to hearing from CompSoc about the next edition of ShefJam, or any other similar event, because – seriously – what they organised this year was absolutely stunning.