UEFN Game Jams

Our team is made up of uniquely talented individuals that are both game developers and educators. We produce educational content and act as in-house trainers for Minecraft Education and Epic Games software tools. In this position, we see the value of these software tools and how to scaffold career skills throughout a students education journey using their favorite video games.

Why UEFN?

UEFN stands for Unreal Editor for Fortnite. It is a combination of the powerful industry-leading technologies of the Unreal Engine environment with the broad appeal and distribution of the Fortnite ecosystem. As a game development platform, Fortnite Creative led to the creation of hundreds of devices that make it easier to implement complex game mechanics. With the introduction of the Unreal Editor comes the ability to customize the environment with custom models, materials, animations, visual effects, and even the ability to create custom devices with the new Verse programming language. Learning the UEFN platform with Cleverlike leads to rapid development and the ability to iterate on functional game projects within a short period of time. There are many advantages to getting a working product done quickly and iterating based on feedback as opposed to wrestling with a complex platform in order to reach a functional product by the deadline.

Planning

There are many considerations when it comes to planning a game jam. Our team has facilitated training to a wide variety of participants in a diverse array of environments. We are focused on creating an environment where participants can comfortably learn and work on their projects. We will help you with hardware and software requirements, identifying your intended audience, making sure your space is an adequate learning environment, defining any themes or requirements related to the participant project, communication templates, and much more.

Community Outreach

If your school or program is in a leadership position, it’s a great idea to invite educators from partner and feeder schools to you facility for some professional learning in the realm of video games in education. We offer numerous 3-hour workshops that are geared toward appropriate tools and activities that can be implemented in their classrooms.

The Kickoff Training

We are the creators of the UEFN Creator School, an Epic MegaGrant recipient. As leading educators in the UEFN community, we have experience in getting newcomers geared up to create and publish games within the time of their game jam. The first few hours of the game jam are dedicated to group instructions that get everyone familiar with the UEFN environment and establishing the foundation for their game.

Teams and Game Ideas

After everyone has a chance to learn the basics of the platform independently, they are given time to form teams and decide on the game idea their team will build during the game jam. Each team presents their ideas to our expert staff in order to get some advice on using their team members to build prototype features that help guide the scope and functionality of their project.

Individualized Team Support

Our team has produced numerous projects in UEFN and our goal is to provide guidance to each individual team. Students that are new to the UEFN platform will get direction on the various prototypes their team members can build individually to vet their game design objectives while students new to game development will also benefit from our experience in creating a scope of work that is aligned with the time and expertise available during the game jam.

Intermittent Group Instruction

As teams progress with their projects during the game jam, they will reach certain milestones at the same time due to the tight schedule. Our team provides quick and timely instruction as students reach important milestones in their game development. Things like player spawning, score tracking, island settings, and player communication are among some of the moments where most participants are ready to learn at the same time.

Playtesting and Feedback

As time progresses, our team serves to remind participants of their deadlines and help them reach a playable version of their game with enough time to solicit feedback that can be incorporated into the final project. This is a major benefit of the UEFN platform. The value of completing a first version of a game concept and getting playtesting feedback is a huge benefit that can not be overstated, and is difficult to accomplish in this timeframe with most development platforms.

Presentations and Awards

Based on the format of your game jam, we will account for some type of submission or presentation of each game design. If a judging rubric has been provided as part of the game jam, this will be used by the appointed judges to decide the placement of participants. In the past, game jam hosts have provided recognition awards, cash prizes, and even designation as the game used in a future esports tournament.

Want to run a UEFN Game Jam?

When a blizzard cancelled our flights, we were surely going to miss a game jam. But, our team quickly drove 7 hours from Denver to an airport in Texas to catch a flight to North Carolina. We arrived earlier than our original flight plan!

The Dedicated Cleverlike Educators!