Brief
The Jordan Gaming Lab supports Jordan's digital games industry by raising awareness of the importance of the digital games industry among the young generation. It also aims to assist young Jordanians in developing their ideas, teaching them the fundamentals of designing and producing digital games, and connecting young Jordanians interested in this field with leading international companies.
The Vision
Jordan Gaming Lab is an initiative launched by His Majesty King Abdullah II Ibn Al Hussein in 2011 through KAFD. The lab was created specifically to meet the needs of developers and companies in designing and programming digital games, to serve as an incubator for them and their projects, and to develop the minds of young Jordanians who are creative. The lab also aims to provide them with opportunities to develop and improve their ideas, as well as to make them a reality. Furthermore, support and elevate the digital gaming industry, which is regarded as one of Jordan's most promising and rapidly growing industries.
The Jordan Gaming Lab was instrumental in increasing collaboration between academic institutions and game maker companies with the goal of developing this promising industry in Jordan. To provide members with the opportunity to advance their careers and create job opportunities through gaming programming initiatives and competitions supported by specialized bodies and companies from the public or private sectors, as well as international gaming companies.
Sony chose the Jordan Gaming Lab to be the region's first and the world's second specialized in teaching game programming and development on Sony systems.
Objectives
The Jordan Gaming Lab seeks to accomplish the following objectives:
• Raise community awareness of the importance of Jordan's digital gaming industry.
• Promote Jordan as a regional digital gaming center.
• Develop young Jordanians' capabilities and provide them with the necessary technical skills to develop digital games globally.
• Develop Jordan's educational level with the goal of producing distinct human resources in the fields of technology and game development.
• Create a nurturing environment for Jordanian digital game developers and include all Jordanian game developers and companies in the development of this vital sector.
Eligibility
• The applicant must be over the age of (9) years.
• The applicant must be interested in the digital games industry.
Jordan Gaming Lab offers the following services
- In-lab facilities, modern hardware, and software.
- New member training courses and workshops
- Monitoring of participants' progress, games, and projects.
- Introduce participants to local and international businesses.
Achievements
• Establishing seven fully equipped gaming labs in:
Amman, Irbid, Aqaba, Ma'an at Al-Hussain bin Talal University, Al-Zarqa,a , Al-Karak at Creativity Club and Mu'tah University) , as well as a Bus Gaming Lab.
• The lab attracted over 10,000 participants of various ages.
• Collaboration with over (17) local and global companies specializing in the gaming industry sector.
• Jordan Gaming Summit has been held annually since 2011
• Hosting the Global Conference for the digital games industry, Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan, organized by Steel Media International.
• Providing more than (2288) gaming training courses.
• The lab offered (26716) direct and indirect opportunities for activities and courses to participants.
The Jordan Gaming Lab Grant
The idea
The Jordan Gaming Lab Fund is a grant program that supports talented Jordanian game designers and developers by supporting their creative ideas and projects with financial aid. It aims to help Jordanian indie developers and Mobile video game startups accelerate the development of their ideas and effectively market their games.
The Objective
The Fund supports game developers and startups in the following ways:
1. The Fund provides grants to game developers and startups to help cover part of their development and marketing costs. The Fund will provide grants of up to JD 10,000
2. The Fund offers creative consulting services for game developers to improve their innovative ideas and concepts and marketing consulting services to market their games more effectively.
3. It provides workshops on game design, development techniques, and marketing techniques for Jordanian indie developers to help them build a solid foundation for their games' success.
4. It offers opportunities for Jordanian indie game developers to showcase their games at regional and international conferences, facilitating connections between them and global gaming companies.
As well as facilitating connections between them and potential investors or clients that can help expand their business or help them launch their next successful project.
Application Criteria
Any independent game developer and/or group of independent developers as a team may apply for support under the following conditions:
1. The applicant must be of Jordanian nationality
2. The applicant must be at least 18 years old.
3. The applicant must have the necessary experience in the field of The Digital Gaming industry and have a complete and clear plan on how to disburse the support linked to a time frame for implementation approved by the committee.
4. To be an active member of the Jordan Gaming Lab for less than one year.
5. To contribute to the Lab activities, the applicant must conduct two training courses on the electronic games industry for the members.
* If the applicant for the financial support is a startup company, the following conditions shall be applied:
1- To be a Jordanian company.
2- To be registered with the competent authorities for no less than one year, and one of its objectives is to develop electronic games.
3- The nature of the support provided should be in line with the goals and objectives of the video games industry.
4- The company will conduct two training courses in game development for Gaming Lab members to contribute to the lab's activities.
The amount of financial support
We provide financial and logistical support for independent developers and startups; we provide financial assistance of up to JD 5,000 for independent game developers and JD 10,000 for Game Studios startups.
Project Evaluation Criteria
An independent committee will be invited to undertake the following
1. Studying and evaluating the nominated applications.
2. Determine eligible projects for the pitching stage.
3. Selected projects are presented to the industry and business specialists jury panel.
5. Final presentation stage and jury deliberations to select the winning team(s).