(Tues, July 30th – Derry-Londonderry) Dublin-based games development event, GameCraft , have announced a special twenty-four hour game jam with Nintendo on September 13th-14th as part of this year’s CultureTECH Festival in Derry-Londonderry.

The event will see over 100 games developers from across the UK and Ireland compete, from 7pm on Friday night to 7pm on Saturday night, to develop new video games centred around a theme to be announced on the day.

The involvement of Nintendo marks a unique opportunity for all participants. Developers have the chance to create a game for the Wii U console, with exclusive access to development hardware and using the new Nintendo Web Framework. Nintendo will provide hands-on technical support and internal game evaluation staff of the company will participate in the jury.

Nintendo Web Framework makes Wii U more accessible for developers, as you can create Wii U software only using HTML5 and JavaScript. I believe it is a rather interesting environment for a 24-hour game jam”, says Martin Buchholz, Manager of Nintendo’s Developer Relations & Support in Europe. Martin adds “CultureTECH is going to be an amazing festival and we are proud to take part in this special event.

The event builds on the recent success of GameCraft, which aims to help “game-makers to meet, share ideas, have fun, compete for prizes and most importantly make games!” Since launching in Dublin in 2012, with over 120 attendees producing more than 35 games, GameCraft has hosted events across Ireland with new events now planned for New York and London.

CultureTECH Festival Director, Mark Nagurski added:

 “Not only are we thrilled to welcome GameCraft to Derry for the first time, but having Nintendo involved is a real coup for the festival. We have a really strong games programme at this year’s CultureTECH with workshops, tournaments and free-to-play arcades throughout the city but this announcement really puts it over the top. We also need to say a special thank you to Invest Northern Ireland for making the initial introductions which have led directly to this collaboration.”

Anyone interested in taking part in GameCraft at CultureTECH can register online at . Full details of the CultureTECH programme are available online now at http://www.culturetech.co/prog.