After a 5 year hiatus, the game development marathon Castle Game Jam returned to Latvia. The event, held on June 11-17 at Jaunpils Castle, brought together over 180 participants from 25 countries.
As stated in its name, the event is traditionally held in a castle – buildings, which are not traditionally known for their excellent internet coverage. LMT provided the telecommunications infrastructure for the event, ensuring Mikrotik WiFI routers, Private 5G network coverage, and VR/AR devices for enhanced reality game development.
The event brought together talented game developers from around the world. LMT, with a particular interest in VR and AR innovations, was impressed to see what the developers were able to create with the time and tools available to them during the event. Among the tools provided were Oculus Quest and Lightspace Technology headsets, the latter of which is locally developed and manufactured.
LMT’s interest in XR is long-standing, with partnerships with local VR/AR companies in place for years. This past autumn LMT was a key participant in NATO’s first 5G operational experiment, which was held in Latvia, partially due to the existing robust 5G infrastructure. During the experiment, various AR/VR applications were tested, and LMT’s ability to deliver advanced network setups was spotlighted.
Equipping the Jaunpils Castle with state-of-the-art communications required complex configurations, in part due to the specifics of castles – remote locations, sprawling layout across several floors, and thick walls and floors. The installation required twelve WiFi Mikrotik routers, Privite 5G with indoor coverage bases stations, an optical fiber connection, and hundreds of cables, resulting in a custom-built, private 5G network.
Ensuring the kind of connectivity that game developers need in a medieval castle was an interesting challenge that we were able to tackle. Combining our own network, integration expertise, and bringing on trusted partners meant that we had all of the necessary components to make Castle Game Jam 2023 a success.
Armands Meirāns, Innovation Lead at LMTThe event combined lectures, workshops, and development sprints for its 180 participants. Over the course of the week, working in teams of 1-4 developers, they built games that were presented at the end of the week.