Armed Forces Jam Shows the Power of Collaboration

There was lots of excitement at the Central Florida Tech Grove last weekend for the inaugural Armed Services Game Jam, a 48-hour event to rapid prototype games and simulations for the armed forces.

The event kicked off with some special guests including Naval Air Warfare Center Training Services Division (NAWCTSD) Commanding Officer, Captain Dan Covelli. “Events like the Armed Forces Jam allow Team Orlando to tap into Central Florida’s talented and robust gaming community to help our armed forces solve hard problems in training and simulation,” said Covelli. “The creative solutions these teams create can help us bring our Warfighters home safely.”

All the services participated and offered challenges for the teams to solve complex problems to improve training and simulation. Thirteen teams participated and worked hard to complete the challenges in a limited time. The participating teams were challenged for solutions for these gaming challenges: collaborative simulation; use of AI/Machine Learning; gamification learning; cybersecurity gamification, PTSD, Creator tools, innovation in data visualization and data interpretation.

First place went to A Square Games & Simulation, LLC for Small Arms Collaborative Training Environment (SACTE) – Use of Force Training Environment Featuring fully rigged VR Player, and will be in the Central Florida Tech Grove booth at I/ITSEC. Orbital Guardians by Team JSquad was the second place winner, and third place was the Integration Innovation, Inc. for NavStrat. Additionally, the Amentum challenge winner was HAT TRICK, developed by Stephen ‘Trey’ Atwood & Angel Rodriguez Lozada.

The jam is equally important for the supporting industry. John Cunningham, head of government solutions at Unity said, “Game Jams are a great way to connect to our ecosystem. For Unity, it helps us to better understand our customers and solve some very important problems while having fun.”

The Armed Forces Jam idea was developed by IndieNomicon and co-founder/director, Kunal Patel. The goal was to bring together people from various creative and technical fields to develop fun games that generate excitement and answer challenging problems identified by Team Orlando military services. IndieNomicon hoped to put a national spotlight on Central Florida and highlight unique talent and, even more, ensure the games helped promote interest in STEAM education to future generations.

The event was held at the Central Florida Tech Grove. As Orlando’s modeling, simulation and training community continues to grow, the Central Florida Tech Grove provides an opportunity for industries and/or businesses not traditionally involved with the DoD to find a way to bring their ideas to fruition. The Tech Grove was created to foster collaboration and the acceleration of novel, non-traditional, modeling, simulation and training and human performance solutions for Team Orlando.

Diana Teel, NAWCTSD chief evangelist, said, “I’m happy and excited to be part of this inaugural event at the Central Florida Tech Grove with our Team Orlando partners. We are knocking down some barriers and bringing positive disruption to the ecosystem.”