Game Design

Wrap-up: Web Social Party Game Jam!

Grayhat's first national game jam was an absolute blast! Over 65 developers from 10 universities battled it out to create the best multiplayer card games using PlayroomKit—and the results were wild. Here's the full behind-the-scenes breakdown.

Talal Ahmed Khan

28 Apr 2025 — 7 min read

ℹ️

This is just the beginning for us.

Picture this: 65 game developers, 10 universities, and 48 chaotic hours to build multiplayer card games from scratch. Why did we do it? Simple—to break things at scale.

At Grayhat, we’ve been building PlayroomKit for Unity for months—testing mechanics, debugging sync issues, taking the SDK to production (finally! 🥲) and pitching wild ideas to Little Umbrella. But why keep the fun to ourselves?

Get the bread

✅ Massive Playground for Experiments
We set the exact same challenges we face in client projects—multiplayer sync, turn systems, state management—and let 10x more developers crash into them. The result? A goldmine of feedback, failed prototypes, and genius workarounds. (Jou cheez hum kar rahay hain, wohi in say karwa kay dekho!)

✅ Direct Firehose of Talent & Ideas
No theory, no hypotheticals—just raw, unfiltered game dev chaos. Our team (@Talha, @Saad, @Talal, @Zohair) got to mentor, troubleshoot, and be inspired by good ideas (shhh) from jammers. Some of these concepts? Mindstorm-level potential.

✅ Side Perks

HR training? Check. (Nothing teaches like a room full of panicked devs.)
Marketing boost? Check. (Nothing sells like screaming students.)
PlayroomKit partnership leveled up? Big check.

Why NaSCon?

Lesser (not zero) logistical nightmares (Islamabad = home turf)
FAST-NUCES host team = instant synergy
Recruitment pipeline? (Hello, future Grayhat hires.)

Bottom line? We didn’t just run a game jam—we weaponized it. And this was just our first time.

The Game Judging Panel 👁️

The Game Jam’s submissions were evaluated by Tabish Ahmed and Aaron (aka @swagshaw on Discord) from Playroom/Little Umbrella, two key figures in the multiplayer gaming space.

Tabish Ahmed, a co-founder of Little Umbrella, has been instrumental in shaping Playroom’s vision for accessible multiplayer game development. His background in product strategy in various FAANG companies (Google, Meta, Adobe) and developer ecosystems made him the perfect judge for assessing both technical execution and creative design.

Aaron (@swagshaw), Playroom’s Developer Advocate, is a well-known voice in indie game dev circles—especially on Discord, where he helps run the Boss Rush Game Jam. His deep understanding of gamejamming and hands-on experience gave him unique insight into how teams could leverage the SDK’s multiplayer features to build unique games.

(Next up: The full story of how 65 devs survived 3 days of multiplayer madness.) 🚀

Day 1: Learning, Brainstorming & Chaos

📍 Venue: FAST-NUCES, Islamabad

9:00 AM: The FAST-NUCES host team arrived, setting up projectors, decorations, and (most importantly) water bottles.
12:00 PM: Participants rolled in—some confident, some nervous, all excited.
Problem Statement Drop: "Build an original multiplayer card game. No Uno clones!" (We had to enforce this multiple times.)
Workshop Time: The Grayhat team, spearheaded by Talha Momin, ran a PlayroomKit deep dive, explaining multiplayer sync, game states, and how to avoid disasters.
Most Chaotic Moment: A last-minute Wi-Fi firewall problem forced some teams to hotspot from their phones.

By evening, teams had rough prototypes—some functional, some… experimental.

The "How to use PlayroomKit" Workshop, delivered by Talha Momin (Software Engineer 1)

Day 2: Build Day

🕒 9:30 AM: Host team arrived
🕒 10:30 AM: Teams returned, looking slightly more tired but determined.

The Great Multiplayer Struggle: Many teams hit roadblocks with PlayroomKit syncing.
- "Why does my card disappear when I play it?"
- "Why is my opponent seeing a different hand?!"
Grayhat to the Rescue: Volunteers ran from table to table, fixing bugs and calming nerves.
Underdog Story: Team "Anicards"—who had zero Unity experience before the jam—somehow built a working animal battle card game. Legends.

By 2 PM, exhausted but hopeful, teams left to polish their games overnight.

Day 2 was mostly about coding, and collaborating

Day 3: Judgement Day

🏆 8:00 AM: Final sprint—some teams arrived early, frantically fixing last-minute bugs.

9:00 AM: Judges arrived (Grayhat on-site + Playroom online). The pressure was on.
Judging time:
- 5th Ace had judges super impressed with a well thought out genre-blender game.
- Anicards – Well, at least it worked!
- Others – mostly submitted half-baked designs and implementations. But understandable given the duration of the event.
Winner Announcement:
- 🥇 1st Place: 5th Ace (PKR 50,000) – "A genius social deception game!"
- 🥈 Runner-Up: Anicards (PKR 30,000) – "Simple, polished, and fun!"
Most Emotional Moment: The Anicards team (all first-time Unity users) celebrated like they’d won the lottery.

What Participants Said

Here's the real, unfiltered participant feedback from the Game Jam, presented clearly and honestly:

Participant Testimonials: The Good, The Bad, and The Real

The Frustrations

"PlayroomKit is not good - it doesn't make game dev easy. We spent hours just trying to get basic multiplayer working."

"My cards remained static and unplayable even though I made sure they were copied prefabs from the original. After analyzing the code for hours, I had to change my entire strategy."

"The introduction of PlayroomKit was a surprise that threw us off. We needed at least a week to properly learn it before competing."

The Technical Challenges

"Biggest struggle? Definitely PlayroomKit integration. The initial setup was confusing and we lost valuable time."

"We're newbies and making a multiplayer game without prior experience is hard. The documentation wasn't enough for beginners."

"The Discord activity integration was unclear. A short tutorial would have helped immensely."

The Positive Experiences

"The mentors were incredibly helpful. When we were stuck, they came to our table and solved our issues personally."
("Anicards" team member)

"Despite the challenges, I'm now fully entering game dev because of this event. The hands-on experience was invaluable."
(Enthusiastic participant)

"Card designing was the most enjoyable part for me. Seeing our creations come to life was rewarding."
(Anonymous artist)

Suggestions for Improvement

"Don't limit developers to specific tools. Let us use what we're comfortable with."
(Anonymous developer)

"Announce required SDKs at least 3 days before the jam. Learning new tech during competition is stressful."
("Doctor vs Virus" team)

"More time! Two days isn't enough, especially when learning new tools. A 5-day jam would be better."
(Multiple participants)

The Real Talk

"Nascon management was terrible. But the Game Jam organizers themselves were great - responsive and helpful."
(Blunt participant)

"There's nothing a student enjoys more than staring at Visual Studio for 3 hours, taking a break, then staring for 3 more. 10/10 would do again."
(Sarcastic but dedicated participant)

"The competition felt like 50% game dev and 50% wrestling with external tools. More focus on actual game creation would be better."
(Experienced participant)

The Silver Linings

"Even though we didn't finish, we learned so much about multiplayer sync that we couldn't have learned in classes."
("Cards Clash" team)

"The Q&A session at the end was super helpful for understanding what we did wrong."
(First-time jammer)

"Seeing our simple animal battle game actually work in multiplayer was magical. Worth all the frustration."
("Anicards" team)

📉 Biggest Struggles:

Multiplayer sync issues (of course)
Confusing PlayroomKit setup (npm + Unity = headaches)
Time pressure (many teams couldn’t finish in the short duration)

Key Takeaways

✅ PlayroomKit is dope but needs better docs & templates.
✅ Multiplayer is HARD. (But rewarding when it works.)
✅ Original ideas win. (No Uno clones made it to finals.)
✅ Mentors = heroes. (Shoutout to the Grayhat squad.)

What’s Next?

🔜 More Jams, More Games: We’re already planning the next one—bigger prizes, smoother onboarding, and maybe even a Discord integration challenge.

🚀 For Playroom/Little Umbrella:

Better Unity docs (please!)
One-click starter templates (save us from npm hell)
Native build support? (WebGL is cool but limiting.)

🎮 For Participants: Keep polishing those games—some of these deserve a real release!

Final Words

Huge thanks to:

FAST-NUCES for hosting.
Playroom/Little Umbrella for the SDK + judging.
All participants for the chaos, the memes, and the awesome games.

Missed this one? Don’t worry—we’re just getting started. 🚀

Play the Winning Games

The 5th Ace (Winner 👑)

Team: Neva

Playable Demo: https://5thace.playroom.gg

Concept:

A social deduction card game blending bluffing and strategy.
Players alternate roles: Liar (creates false card combos) vs. Detective (calls out bluffs).
Power-ups add meta-layers to deception.

Why Explore Further?

Proven fun factor with minimal assets (Minecraft-inspired UI).
Scalable for Discord’s social ecosystem.
Potential to expand with themed decks (e.g., cyberpunk, fantasy).

Unity WebGL Player | 5th Ace

5th Ace

Anicards (Runner-Up 🥈)

Team: Red Team

Playable Demo: https://anicards.playroom.gg