Global Game Jam Overview

At Issue: What do we do?
IGDA EdSIG
Curriculum Framework
Professional Development
Listserv
Does that make a community?
How far had we actually been able to reach?

Just don't talk about it, do it
Look to experts for advice
Nordic Game Jam
Experimental Game Play/Indie Game Jam
Advisory Board

Community

The Global Game Jam
The Global Game Jam held it’s inaugural 48 hour Game Jam January 30 th -February 1st 2009
1650 Participants
97% surveyed would participate again
53 locations
25 of which streamed the event LIVE via ustream.tv
23 countries
14 time zones

It is all about making games.
370 games attempted/made
Several games made that weekend have signed publishing deals

What it has done
Brought educators, students and industry professionals together
Changed lives
Created experience
Reached out across the globe

Failure is Success
Support the idea of rapid protyping and itterative design, working in teams, collaboration, creativity and experimentation.
Fundemental strategies of the IGDA Education SIG Curriculum Framework

Lead by example
Susan Gold
Gorm Lai
Ian Schreiber

Look for banner at the expo
Play at least one game at all 3 booths
Cogswell Booth #5338
Holland Pavilion Booth #5422
RIT Booth #5616
Collect stickers on business cards
Enter drawing, win fabulous prizes

Special Thanks
Anders Højsted
Stephen Jacobs
Sean Kauppinen
Foaad Koshmood
Zach Lehman
Miguel Sicart
Darren Torpey

Point-Of-View
Anders Højsted
Msc.IT.(DMC) from IT-University In Copenhagen – focus on digital design & gamedesign
QA, QA Lead, Game Consultant, RPG writer, RPG Teacher, Innovation-consultant
Business-development on indie Wii-developer
Been an organizer of Nordic Game Jam the last 2 years
Responsible for the Global Game Jam-manual
POW: Industry
What can participation in a gamejam give students that will make it easier for them to break into the game industry?

Game Jams as an Educational Activity?
Practically Oriented
Conditions @ gamejams:
48 hours
New team
(maybe) New technology
New workflows
New gamedesign

Game Jams as an Educational Activity?
Simulates worst kind of crunch
Participants can try themselves under the worst possible conditions
Important lessons:
Constraints: skills, technology, manpower
Scoping & Prioritizing

The Importance Of Team-based Development in Educations
Games are (mostly) made by teams; team-based development simulates the worklife-situation

The Importance Of Team-based Development in Educations (con't)
Important Perspectives:
Communication & Management
Documentation
Interdisciplinary communication
Technical Issues
QA – Testing & Iterative Development
Social Dynamics

Pen & Paper, NGJ'06, Copenhagen

Dark Room Sex Game, NGJ'08, Copenhagen

Pulse, Utrecht GJ, 2009

Prototyping Rapid Evolutionary Throw-away: : to build a very robust prototype in a structured manner and constantly refine it. to create a model that will eventually be discarded rather than becoming part of the final delivered software.

Rapid Prototyping Manufacturers can create 3D models with CAD (Computer-Aided Design) programs then fabricate those models using layer based manufacturing. Game developers use advanced CAD programs to build assets that are later compiled to form complete digital environments – a process similar to layer based manufacturing.

Rapid Prototyping Investor/Publisher Conflicts End-user Wishes Outsourcing Investors and publishers don’t always know every intimate detail about development. Communication can be cloudy, which results in features or goals being updated frequently. People who pay monthly to play video games certainly have a voice in what should be added or changed, but sometimes their concerns don’t properly align with the rest of the game’s mechanics. Outsourcing can start out as a quick and cost-effective way to finish game assets, but companies that don’t properly communicate their needs can end up paying more for it in the long run.

Rapid Prototyping Game Development on Steroids Skills to Pay the Bills Teamwork and Leadership A rapidly prototyped game is still considered a game. It should still have all the key features that a game showcases (code, art, etc.). When students or game jam participants form teams, its rare that the teams are perfectly balanced. Sometimes groups will have multiple artists but a weak programming background. Sometimes it’s the opposite. Rapid prototyping wont often allow time to set up a new political structure complete with meetings and debates. You can throw the human resources department out the window.

Rapid Prototyping Creativity in Constraints? Most students complain about constraints set on their projects. The Global Game Jam taught them how constraints can actually make life easier. Guerilla Warfare Rapid prototyping encourages students to develop individual skills and to integrate those skills into a team setting. Under the pressure of a strict deadline, students often find creative and unconventional ways to attack the constraints set before them. New teams, new environments and new software require participants to adapt and overcome.

Rapid Prototyping Blocking Shadows Go head to head or against the computer in a strategy and physics based stacking game. The goal is to get as many blocks of your color in the red circle as possible. The trick is that every time your opponent’s block touches yours, the color changes and it’s his! Use your wits to outsmart your opponent and turn his blocks against him!

The Iterative Process KISS Game development is no exception to the KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid) rule. SCRUM and Agile These are just two of many popular iterative processes used in today’s companies. If you’d like to learn more about these and other similar practices, Clinton Keith is presenting this Thursday. Check GDC’s website for time and location as well as a more detailed description.

The Iterative Process A Sample Iterative Process

The Iterative Process Embracing Failure The iterative process teaches students to embrace failure rather than shy from it. When students correctly utilize the iterative process, they realize failures much sooner and are able to fix them before the small setbacks become insurmountable problems. “ Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” -Sir Winston Churchill

The Iterative Process Star-Crossed Lovers A game where two people cross the world to find each other. Material distractions (represented as gold coins) will make your partner happy but will also slow you down. You have only 3 days to find each other – can you make it in time?

Who am I? Ian Schreiber Programmer, Game Designer, Professor of Game Design Columbus State Community College Savannah College of Art and Design http://teachingdesign.blogspot.com

Constraints

Types of Constraints
Theme
Mechanics
Aesthetics
Technical

Game Mechanics

Game Aesthetics

Technical Constraints

Combinations
“ As long as we have each other…” (theme)
5 minutes or less (mechanics)
Choice of 3 adjectives (theme)

Combinations
Physics-based puzzles with magnets
Shuffleboard meets Match-3 meets Reversi
Serious game about addiction
Divorce from the child’s perspective
Casual painting
And 355 more…

Your Turn
Each table, divide in three:
Group 1: create a thematic constraint
Group 2: create a mechanical constraint
Group 3: create an aesthetic constraint

Your Turn
Each group:
Share your constraint with the other groups at your table.

Your Turn
Each group:
Generate as many game concepts as you can using the other two constraints!

How did you do?

Controlling Scope of Projects through time constraints Foaad Koshmood

Time constraint, why do we want it in a Game Jam?
Feasibility
Don’t want participants to spend all day on a “story” or “levels”… prevent too many beads on the string.
Works to encourage small number of levels and limited story at best: (no time for excessive plot exposition).
Judging
Judges and players need to realistically evaluate the game in a short amount of time.
Judges need to be able to see all the major features and graphics within a shot time play.

Working in the time limit
Some people “loosely interpreted” (i.e. ignored) the time constraint.
Others worked in the time constraint arbitrarily (i.e. it was not integral to the play).
Still others made use of the time constraint as an essence of the game concept.

3 games selected to demo
Little Big Fort (Australia)
A Moose’s Love (Santa Cruz, CA)
Four Minutes and Thirty Three seconds of uniqueness (Denmark)

Little Big Fort

Little Big Fort -continued
Beautiful graphics, multiplayer game
Uses a countdown clock to pressure teams to succeed.
Count starts at 300 seconds

A Moose’s Love
Game uses the position of the sun as a time indicator.
From sunrise to sunset: roughly 4 minutes.

4’ 33” of Uniqueness!
Very creative post-modern game based on John Cage’s
Postmodern piece: 4’ 33”
You win only if no one else plays the game for 4’ 33”.
Absolutely no interaction but strategy involved.

Conclusion
Time constraints are useful for judging and motivation.
Can be handled creatively or accidentally (could be a factor in point system evaluations).

Gorm Lai
Indie Game Developer
IGDA Copenhagen
Co-Founder Nordic Game Jam

Nordic Game Jam
Ingredients
Timeline
Organization
Responsibilities
Conclusion
Running a Game Jam

World's biggest jam
159 Participants
4 years running
Experimentation!
Nordic Game Jam

Memories
Pen & Paper ( NGJ 06 )‏
Dark Room Sex Game ( NGJ 08 )‏
Make My Head Grow ( NGJ 09 )‏

Necessities
Venue
Electricity
Network
Constraints/Affordances
Creativity
Good Spirit

More?
Helpers
Computers
Development Software
Group Forming
Catering
Helpers

Options
Talks
Competitions
Jury

Work Schedule - Before
September. 1 st Organizers Meeting
October. Announcement
November. Sign up, weekly organizers meetings

Work Schedule - Before
December. Practicalities mostly in place; volunteers, talks, constraints, catering
January. Press releases, gathering money, final preparations

Work Schedule - During
Friday. Registrations, announcing constraints, creating groups
Saturday
Sunday. Collecting games, handling jury, presenting games

Work Schedule - After
Press Releases
Follow ups. Sponsors, jury, panel, speakers
Web Site
Accounting
Misc

Organization

Responsibilities
HR & Organization!
Budget & Money
Social Exercises
Press, Jury & Networking
Catering

Responsibilities
Participants (Students)‏
Venue
Equipment
Press

Responsibilities
Participants (Professionals)‏
Constraints & Affordances
Event Managers
Web site
Sign up
gradually taking over Diginet's role

Conclusion
Partnerships
Constraints
The Spirit of the Jam
Follow up

More Memories?
4m & 33s of Uniqueness
Pulse
Bipole
300 games +

Questions? [email_address]

Game Jams and Game Studies
miguel sicart
assistant professor
IT University of Copenhagen
game.itu.dk
[email_address]

My 20 minutes of fame
Game studies?
Three examples
The importance of jamming
Theorizing for the future

Game Studies: the field
Academic discipline that studies games from a humanities/social sciences perspective.
Started ca. 2000
gamestudies.org
Games and Culture

Game Studies: research
Game studies is concerned with the nature and cultural meaning of games.
Applying the humanities/social sciences method to understanding games.

Game Studies: Examples
What games are? Jesper Juul’s Half-Real
The importance of communities: T.L. Taylor’s Play Between Worlds
The meaning of games: Miguel Sicart’s The Ethics of Computer Games

5 Minutes MMO

The importance of time
The 5 minutes MMO is a radical attempt to play with time:
lag as a mechanic shows us the importance of time in games, and the need to distinguish between play time, game time, and machine time.

4 minutes and 33 seconds of Uniqueness

What is play(ing)?
4’33’’ explores the meaning of play: a game in which interaction, or the very act of play, is penalized: playing is staring, breaking all of our conceptions on games as activities.

Move Mouse to Fulfill Destiny

Stories and Meaning
MMtFD explores the capacities of games to create meaningful stories by means of creating interaction.
Without the heavy load of classic narratives, MMtFD shows us the narrative potential of games and abstraction.

The Importance of Jamming
Jams are open spaces for creativity.
The educational nature of jams invokes a certain “research” situation.
Students and developers can use jams to explore the meaning(s) of the cultural artifacts they produce.

Jams are freedom (for research)

Theorizing for the future

Jams = research.
Develop games based on research ideas.
Conduct studies based on jams (or during jams).
Use game jam games as examples that illustrate academic points.

Game Studies has the duty of researching the cultural, ludic, and social implications of game jams and the games developed in those contexts.

Thanks! [email_address]

Global Game Jam Overview

by Susan Gold on Mar 29, 2009

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Global Game Jam Overview — Presentation Transcript