Recently, from 28th to 30th November, MCAST hosted the “Retro Jam,” a 48-hour game jam celebrating the 40th anniversary of the iconic Amiga console. The event was organised by MCAST in collaboration with Amiga Malta and the Microcomputing Society, and was supported by GamingMalta and Invent 3D, who also created the trophies for the event.
The theme, “Total Recall,” challenged participants to take inspiration from an original Amiga game and modernise it while remaining faithful to the original. The aim was to create a new experience that, when played, would immediately remind players of the original, capturing mechanics, aesthetics, and what made the game iconic in a fresh yet recognisable way.
Students and hobbyists rose to the challenge, and the event also featured talks from exclusive guest speakers: Colin Vella from Raster Wizards, Mario Abela from Phaze101, and Walter Mamo from Amiga Malta, who shared valuable insights and personal experiences with the Amiga and retro gaming. The Retro Jam also supported a charitable cause, with all donations going towards Pink October and Movember.
A wide variety of games of different genres were made during the course of the Retro Jam, from 2D platformers to 3D shooters to puzzle games and more, the judges were impressed by the innovation and variety of the games that was showcased and in such little time.
Top 3 Winners – Judges Take
As the jam came to a close, it was time to announce the Top 3 Winners of the Retro Jam. The Judges expressed that this was not an easy decision and there were no clear winners in their expert opinion. They further congratulated each team for the work everyone put in and for honoring the theme of the jam.
Without further ado… here are the TOP 3 winners of the Retro Jam 2025
3: Bomberman – Team Chonk
Inspired by the classic Amiga game Dyna Blaster, the team created a two-player action strategy game that preserved the original mechanics while adding a modern twist. They kept the arcade-style layout but replaced the pixel art with digital painterly visuals, earning praise for the art style. The Bomberman character was also completely redesigned, and their version, while very different from the original, had characteristics of a bomb which fit the Total Recall theme while also being different.
Players face off in a treasure room where only one can escape with the loot. Each player has three lives and must eliminate the other using bombs, and they are still vulnerable to their own explosions. The game features a leveling power-up system that adds intensity as each upgrade becomes stronger the more you collect, including a speed boost that increases movement across the map, a multi-bomb upgrade that lets players place multiple bombs at once, and a blast radius enhancer that expands the size of each explosion.
2: Worms – Bilbo
Influenced by the Amiga version of the game Worms, which was a a turn-based tactical game where you as the player control the worms in the midst of a battle using different weapons on a destructible map. The devs wanted to recapture the iconic gameplay and its mechanics that made game so memorable by improving the assets and engaging sound effects. The team was praised for sticking very close to the original game and enhancing what made worms iconic.
1: Lemmingtons – Paw Beans Studios
Lemmingtons is a reinterpretation of the classic Amiga game Lemmings with a competitive twist. Two players face off against each other on the same map, each having 20 lemmings, with the goal of reaching a shared exit. Both players can interfere with each other’s progress via blocking, digging traps, or even detonating their own lemmings to take out their opponents’ lemmings.
The game stays faithful to the original Lemmings while introducing real-time competitive play. It features single-screen multiplayer with controller support, a timer to prevent stalemates, new and enhanced sprites with optional Amiga-style filters, and two fresh mechanics: recall, a limited resource that resets a lemming’s job and returns it to spawn, and pause, which temporarily freezes your own lemmings to enable more strategic decision-making.
In the end, this Retro Jam proved how classic ideas can spark fresh and exciting creations while showcasing the strong potential of local talent. With inventive mechanics and polished visuals, the event highlighted how retro inspiration can still lead to engaging modern experiences. All the games made for the jam can be played here: itch.io/jam/retro-jam-mcast-2025/entries