This weekend, game-lovers will gather in cities around the world to participate in Global Game Jam, in which participants have exactly two days to build a game. Here's a snip from the press release:
From 5:00pm Friday January 30th through 5:00 pm Sunday, February 1, over a thousand college students, faculty and industry members will join together for a 48 hour game building marathon popularly known as a Game Jam. Participants will be given the details of the game design theme, constraints and mechanics allowed when the clock hits 5:00 p.m. in their local time zone. As the time zones change, so will those constraints, to mitigate any advantage global location might give one team over the other. While individual and regional Game Jams have been held wherever gamers congregate in the last few years, never has there been one of such size and scope as the Global Game Jam (GGJ).
[Keynote Speaker] Kyle Gabler (…) indie Developer of the popular game “World of Goo,” said, “The next big transformation in gaming won't come from a large game studio with million dollar teams and marketing budgets, it will come from some kid in their bedroom with a few pieces of free software and a never ending supply of caffeine and motivation. I can't wait to see the scraggly, brilliantly hacked together beginnings of some of the next great games crawl out of these 48 hours.”
A number of us from Boing Boing, Offworld, Gadgets and Boing Boing Video plan to be present in various locations, and we'll be producing Boing Boing Video episodes from the madness. Are you attending? We'd love to hear from you in the comments if so!
Here is an overview on how it works. Snip:
The theme and constraints for participants in the Global Game Jam will be announced at 5:00PM on Friday, January 30, 2009 in your time zone. Each local jam is allowed to manage things the way the see fit, but we hope that everyone will follow our recommendations so we share a common experience and everyone is working from a level playing field. Please show up to the jam on time. Below is a typical set-up for a game jam, each jam will vary, please check with each jam to see their schedule. Do not come to the Jam with a team. Everyone will have some time to think and pitch an idea. Collaborate with new friends or peers you admire.
* Here's information about all the locations.
* Here's legalese, like who owns the resulting games. Bottom line: whoever develops 'em, as in, you.
(Thanks, Jolon and Global Game Jam Costa Rica crew!)
