Gamfed Türkiye launched the world’s first gamification hackathon, “Global Gamification Hackathon 2023” by bringing together the best gamification experts worldwide.
The “Global Gamification Hackathon” was held online with the initiative of Türkiye representative of the International Gamification Confederation and Gamfed Türkiye founder Ercan Altuğ Yılmaz. Gamfed Türkiye volunteers Doğancan Sökmen and Afra Çalık also assisted with the coordination of the organization. The organization took place on 10, 11, and 12 March 2023.
Event preparations began back in mid-November 2022. A staff of more than 40 volunteers worked intensely. Influential gamification experts around the world were interviewed in preparation for the event. Correspondence and hours-long online meetings were held with experts and participants living in different countries and time zones.
During the preparations, Türkie was struck by the massive Kahramanmaraş Earthquake on February 6, 2023. Therefore the event was postponed to March 10-11-12. Many speakers, mentors, and jury members demonstrated their support for the event by rearranging their schedules for this event.
Keynote Speeches
Global Gamification Hackathon 2023 started with keynote speeches on the evening of March 10. Speeches included many significant tips for the participants. World-famous gamification experts, including Yu-kai Chou – The Octalysis Group USA, Michael Wu – Chief AI Strategist USA, Andrzej Marczewski – Gamification Expert UK, Adrian Hon – Zombies Run! Founder, Monica Cornetti – Gamicon & Sententia Gamification Founder USA, Bernardo Letayf – BLUErabbit Founder, Roman Rackwitz – Engaging Lab Germany, Olcayto Cengiz – Experience Design & Gamification Lead shared the latest information on gamification and suggested ideas with tips that can guide participants during the hackathon. You can find all inspiring keynote speeches on Gamfed Türkiye YouTube Channel.
Vemaker Metaverse Party (Meetup & Networking)
After the keynote speeches, a Metaverse party supported by the Vemaker platform was organized for meeting and networking purposes. In the entrance hall and disco hall specially designed for the meeting event, the participants explored the areas with their avatars, met with other participants, and made new friends. They were motivated before the long marathon by dancing with their teammates and other participants. Then each team logged into their Discord rooms and discovered the game and sharing areas specific to the Discord channel. Thus began the 48-hour marathon.
Contest themes for Global Gamification Hackathon 2023 were
- Metaverse
- Blockchain Loyalty
- Sustainability and Experience
Genially Training
At Gamfed Türkiye’s hackathon, participants are allowed to receive supportive mini-trainings. In this event, Florina Jelescu from the Genially team organized a training including Genially tips. The participants had the opportunity to ask questions about the web2 tool widely used in gamification. Sponsored by Genially, a special incentive award was also given to competitors who utilized Genially for their prototype.
Mentors
Teams had the opportunity to meet and interact with mentors on Discord for 48 hours and received feedback on their ideas from the world’s best mentors. Improving their ideas and developing their prototypes, they got tips for creating better presentations to impress the users and the jury. During the designated mentoring hours, the teams visited the mentors’ rooms on the Discord channel. In addition, the teams could call the mentors by tagging them in their Discord chats or via authorized volunteers. The feedback from the teams regarding the mentors has been very positive. Most teams noted that their initial ideas underwent significant changes after interacting with the mentors.
Teams
After the keynote speeches on the Zoom platform, all teams went to their private rooms in Discord. Teams, who preferred to be physically together, such as New Zealand and Colombia, visited the Discord channel only to contact the mentors. For various reasons, some countries’ teams could not make it to the presentation phase and withdrew from the event. Only the teams who made it to the presentation stage are included in this report.
The teams were expected to develop a prototype within the scope of the themes chosen for the hackathon in 48 hours and make a four minutes presentation on the final night. The teams pitched their presentations in alphabetical order according to country names. You can access all the teams’ presentations on the Gamfed Türkiye YouTube Channel.
Team 1: Azerbaijan
Aysun Mirzayeva pitched the presentation for the Azerbaijan team. The environmentally friendly bicycle application called “EcoCycle”, which they developed to encourage people to use bicycles instead of cars.
“An eco-friendly cycling app that encourages people to use bikes instead of cars”
Fidan Rüstamlı – Team Partner
Takım Sorumlusu Canan Erdem
Member 1 Abbas Ramazanov
Member 2 Fidan Maharlamova
Member 3 Shahriyar Asgerov
Member 4 Ayxan Hasanov
Member 5 Aysun Mirzayeva
Team 2: Colombia
Carlos Adrian Andrade Hoyos made the presentation of the Colombian team. He pitched the application called “Challenge in Amazon” (Desafio Amazonas), which aims to prevent plastic waste from ending up in the environment and to raise awareness of protecting the planet with the waste collection game.
Yasemin Dinçoflaz – Team Partner
Takım Sorumlusu Yasemin Dinçoflaz
Member 1 Ervin
Member 2 Joa
Member 3 Carlos Adrian Andrade Hoyos
Team 3: Egypt
Ghada Eltanawy made the presentation of the Egyptian team. He pitched the gamified application called “E7lam” that they developed to encourage team members to contribute the most during teamwork.
Ahmed Hossam
Takım Sorumlusu Dilek Taşhanlı
Member 1 Ghada Eltanawy
Member 2 Hesham El Gamal
Member 3 Tarek Roshdy
Member 4 Mohamed Abdelazim
“Interactive learning”
Team 4: India
Deepti Jain made the presentation of the India team. He pitched the gamification system they developed to encourage each team member to contribute to the team with the best capacity in teamwork.
Deepti Jain – Team Partner
Takım Sorumlusu Büşra Çırak
Member 1 Muthu Selvan
Member 2 Akshay Hans
“Encourage every team member to contribute to the team in their best capacity!”
Team 5: Iran
Mustafa Kaya made the presentation of the Iranian team. He pitched the gamified “Eco” application, where they offered a sustainable solution to manage the use of A4 paper in workplaces. They won the special jury award with the idea and application.
Alireza Ranjbar Shourabi – Team Partner
Takım Sorumlusu Mustafa Kaya
Member 1 Mohsen Seifi
Member 2 Nadia Soly
Member 3 Aziz Ahmedov
“A solution for Managing A4 Paper Usage in Businesses.”
Team 6: Lithuania
Jonas Petrėtis made the presentation of the Lithuanian team. He pitched the gamified application “EXlore”. It is developed to encourage users to easily discover places they have not seen in their cities and improve their motivation and experience. They won the Gamfed special award with the idea and application they developed.
Dainius Zviedrys – Team Partner
Team Manager Bahar Kazık
Member 1 Orestas Mažeika
Member 2 Ginas Sadauskas
Member 3 Jonas Petrėtis
Member 4
“An application that combines all the good aspects of both worlds – real and digital.”
Team 7: New Zealand
İpek Erensoy made the presentation of the New Zealand team. She pitched the gamified second-hand clothing application they developed to solve the lack of a sufficient sustainability culture in New Zealand. They received the Special Jury Award for the idea and implementation they developed.
Takım Sorumlusu Aysu Erensoy
Member 1 Monica Ma
Member 2 İpek Erensoy
Member 3 Elijah Zhang
Member 4 Claire Zhao
“A gamified second-hand clothing app”
Team 8: Northern Cyprus
Emre Kaçan made the Northern Cyprus team’s presentation. He pitched the idea to develop an island where cultures meet.
Team Manager Yenal Yıldırım
Member 1 Samet Aygül
Member 2 Emre Kaçan
Member 3 Rahmi Direnç Sezer
Member 4 Elvin Arslan
Member 5 Yas
“Developing an island where cultures meet”
Team 9: Romania
Lucian made the Romanian team’s presentation. He pitched the interactive education application they developed using education and gamification in Metaverse to make formal education more fun.
Acatrinei-Vasiliu Lacramioara
Team Manager Bahar Kazık
Member 1 Celmane
Member 2 Grubi Alexandrina
Member 3 Lucian
Member 4
Member 5
“The Metaverse in Education”
Team 10: Russia
Yuliana Skriabina made the Russia team presentation. She pitched the storytelling and gamified application called “The last hope”. They received the third prize for the idea and application they developed.
Team Manager Betül Aras Bayır
Member 1 Yuliana Skriabina “DTO”
Member 2 Seva Ghoshev
Member 3 Viktor Rodionov
Member 4 Lev Vasiliev
Member 5 Mamaev Vsevolod
- Team: South Korea
HeeJin Kim made the South Korean team presentation. They pitched the gamified app they developed to promote upcycling. They won the third prize with the idea and application they developed.
Donghyun Lee – Team Partner
Takım Sorumlusu Tansu Karapınar
Member 1 Hwanhee Song
Member 2 HeeJin Kim
Member 3 Dream Kim
“‘The indirect, emotional experience of upcycling’”
Team 12: Türkiye
Kerem Yazıcı made the Türkiye team presentation. He pitched the gamified prototype application and website they developed to promote the “Sustainable Development Goals”. The team was active on Discord for 48 hours and, received opinions from almost all mentors, won the first prize with the idea and application they developed.
Kerem Yazıcı – Team Partner
Takım Sorumlusu Hüseyin Bayer
Member 1 Rabiye Aydın
Member 2 Ahmet Alpslan Maral
Member 3 Abdullah Höcü
Member 4 Osman Gürses
Member 5 Mustafa Can Yıldırım
Member 6 Faruk Yıldırım
“Sustainable Development Goals”
Team 13: United Kingdom
Jasmine Bradford made the England team presentation. She presented the gamified prototype application and website called “Dream Buddy”, which they developed to help people reach their dreams and goals. They were awarded the second prize.
Doğancan Sökmen – Team Partner
Takım Sorumlusu Doğancan Sökmen
Member 1 Ali Şen
Member 2 Ercan Akın
Member 3 Pınar Çelik
Member 4 Sarah Elders
Member 5 Jasmine Bradford
“An app to help people achieve their dreams/goals”
Jurors
The jury of world-renowned gamification experts, Toby Beresford, Victoria Ichizli Bartles, Juliette Denny, and Ebubekir Kaplan, evaluated the ideas after all the presentations were conducted. They rated all the ideas from one to ten for four different criteria.
- Metaverse/gamification design
- Supporting the target business idea
- Quality of the prototype
- Presentation skills and timing
While the jury was scoring, feedback was received from the teams about the event. At the end of the process, Ercan Altuğ Yılmaz announced the results.
Awards
- Türkiye – Gamification Europe 2023 Ticket & Udemy
- United Kingdom – Gamicon Ticket
- South Korea – VIP Genially License
- Special Jury Award: Iran – Udemy
- Gamfed Special Award: Lithuania- Udemy
- Gamfed Special Award: New Zealand – Udemy,
All participants were given a Gamification Hackathon certificate in both digital and NFT formats.
Thanks
Gamfed thanked the keynote speakers, mentors, jury, participants, sponsors, and other Gamfed volunteers.
For detailed information about the Global Gamification Hackathon 2023, you can visit the Global Gamification Hackathon 2023 Website. You can also find sections from the keynote speeches, the excitement of the participants, the mentoring process, and short selections from the presentations during the event on our Gamfed Türkiye social media accounts (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn).
Global Partners
