Madrid in Game and Buenos Aires in Game connected Hispanic American talent through an international HackJam

Madrid in Game and Buenos Aires in Game jointly held a new edition of their HackJams, transformed on this occasion into a 72-hour international hackathon. The challenge connected participants from Madrid and Buenos Aires through a hybrid format in which developers, designers, artists, programmers and other creative professionals worked together in multidisciplinary teams.

During the event, the teams conceived, designed and developed a serious game from scratch based on a common theme revealed at the beginning of the challenge. The initiative tested the participants’ creativity, technical skills and teamwork, with the aim of creating video games capable of promoting learning, raising awareness or making a real-world impact beyond entertainment. This first international edition brought together 100 participants—36 from Madrid and 64 from Buenos Aires—divided into 22 teams, including four mixed teams, who developed serious games about tourism from scratch.

The jury named “Distracción Turística”, created by Madrid’s Team 6, as the winning project. It is a casual arcade-style management game for PC in which players must guide tourists through iconic areas of cities around the world, keep them together, prevent them from getting lost and use a whistle to attract their attention. Second prize went to “Oficina 3X-632”, developed by Buenos Aires’ Team 23, while the Peer-to-Peer Award was presented to 4Ways, a mixed team that embodies the initiative’s spirit of international collaboration. All the games are now freely available to the public.

The HackJam concluded with a virtual final in which the shortlisted projects were presented to a jury of industry experts from Madrid and Buenos Aires. The initiative strengthened cooperation between the two cities and established a new bridge for talent between Europe and Latin America in the fields of video games, gamification and applied technologies.