Develop a video game in 48 hours only on laptops? This is the challenge launched by Asus to the four video game developers, the Crafteurs. Here is the #AsusGameJam, a two-day adventure told by our teams.
Released just a few weeks ago, the brand new Asus VivoBook Pro 16X OLED are powerful laptops for creatives. To test them, Asus has challenged four developers to create a video game on these laptops in two days. Challenge accepted.
What is the #AsusGamejam?
For two days, Frandroid accompanied the Crafteurs, a team of developers whose mission was to create a video game on an imposed theme. Asus and Frandroid proposed several themes and one of them was drawn. Among the proposals were:
- Dumb superpowers
- The world in your pocket
- Magic hates technology (and vice versa)
- You can stop, but…
- Notice of storm
- A Million Parallel Worlds
After an interminable suspense, the hand of destiny finally chose to have our four jamers work on the following theme: “You can stop, but… “
The theme is chosen, the VivoBook Pro 16X are configured. We tell you what happened during the #AsusGamejam.
The Game jam: Instructions for use
But first, what is a Game jam? Simply put, it’s a hackathon whose goal is to make a video game within a given time, usually between 24 and 72 hours.
The #AsusGamejam, a challenge in 48 hours, ready to start // Credit: Johana Hallmann for Humanoid XP
After being informed of the theme of the Gamejam, the participants divided into teams pool their knowledge and skills to create a game from A to Z, before presenting it to a jury once the allotted time has elapsed.
Gamejams are regular events in the world of video game developers. Among the best known, we find the Global Game Jam or the Ludum Dare, two events which have given birth, in recent years, to excellent games such as Super Hot, God will be watching or Evoland.
Meet the Crafters, the shock team of this #AsusGameJam
In order to meet the challenge launched by Asus, it was necessary to find a team of shock and charm. Les Crafteurs is a talented and lively team of developers from Lille. These four jacks-of-all-trades have some great achievements to their credit, which allow you to realize both their know-how, but also their quirky spirit.
For the #AsusGamejam, the Crafters spent 48 hours together to create a video game // Source: Johana Hallmann for Humanoid XP
A brief overview:
- toasterball : this is probably their biggest project to date, since it is still under development. Available in Early Access on Steam (check it out), and the result of a brilliantly successful Kickstarter campaign in 2018, this multiplayer title amazes. It embodies indeed toasters with diverse personalities and playing wild matches, with changing rules, which give pride of place to fun and bursts of laughter.
- A good time – The puzzles : do you know Un bon moment, the podcast created and hosted by Kyan Khojandi and Navo? Well know that the Crafters have collaborated with the two olibrius on their entire season 2. Just that. For each of the 35 episodes of this second season, they imagined and created an enigma, hidden within each issue. A huge, hyper creative work, which you can discover in detail in the video that Kyan dedicated to them on his channel.
Asus Vivobook Pro 16X OLED: a machine cut out for creation
Among the conditions of this Gamejam: use the Asus Vivobook Pro 16X OLED. A laptop designed for the most creative profiles. He has some serious assets up his sleeve.
Today, there are more and more nomadic creators: photography, video editing or graphic design, these image professionals need powerful solutions to bring their ideas to life. To meet their expectations, ASUS has developed a range of PCs especially for them. The Vivobook Pro 16X OLED, like its little brother, the Vivobook Pro 14X OLED meets the major requirements of all creative people.
The VivoBook Pro 16X, a comfortable, powerful computer, designed for creatives // Source: Johana Hallmann for Humanoid XP
The Asus Vivobook Pro 16X OLED in a nutshell:
- Intel Core i7-11370H 3.3GHz processor;
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card;
- 16 GB of RAM;
- Storage 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD;
- 16-inch 4K OLED panel (3840 × 2400 pixels) with a latency of 0.2 ms and a maximum brightness of 550 nits.
Among the advantages of this Vivobook Pro 16X OLED, we note the presence of its OLED panel. Long confined to TV, this screen technology has recently become more popular and has been available for over a year on many ASUS brand PCs. It provides deep blacks, more intense contrasts, but also a 70% reduction in blue light. The Asus VivoBook Pro 16X OLED also benefits from Pantone certification which ensures good color accuracy.
The beautiful OLED screen of Asus VivoBook 16X Pro // Source: Johana Hallmann for Humanoid XP
Its OLED screen has the advantage of offering bright, faithful colors and above all deep blacks thanks to its infinite contrast. Its technical sheet is based on an 11th generation Intel processor, 16 GB of RAM and above all, a GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card which allows it to take full advantage of the RTX Studio drivers.
As a reminder, these allow creative applications (Photoshop, Blender, Premiere and other software of the same ilk) to make the most of the installed components. A godsend when you have to create 3D models, compose a soundtrack or manage the animation of characters to, say… create a game!
We bet that the Crafters will have a lot to say about this “constraint” imposed on them, at the end of the 48 hours of the Asus Gamejam.
#AsusGameJam: ask for the celebration program
In the coming weeks, you will be able to find on Frandroid several contents relating to the progress of this Asus Game jam. Here is the program :
The backstage of a Game jam shoot // Source: Johana Hallmann for Humanoid XP
- From next week, you will be able to discover an article on the experience of our Crafters. The opportunity for them to tell us about their successes, their difficulties, the challenges encountered during these 48 hours or to give us their opinion on the Vivo Book Pro 16X OLED.
- In two weeks, the time will have come for us to take stock of this Asus Gamejam. We will come back in detail on the progress of this challenge, on the creation of the game, and the tribulations of our jammers. It is also with this article that we will present the game created by the Crafters, and that we will give you the opportunity to download it in order to try it.
- In two weeks also, you will also be able to discover a video returning to the entirety of this Asus Gamejam. You will discover our Crafters in action and will be able to experience the entire process of creating our game from the inside.