My 'short' history of Game Jams, Game Hacks & Train Jam Adventures. It is great being and Indie game developer these days! I also give some advice and words of wisdom of my experience with game jams or so called Hackathons.

1. MY GAME JAM’S HISTORY
by Richard Hoffmann
January 9, 2017

2. WHO AM I?
• Indie App/Game Developer since 2010 (still starving)
• AR Producer 2009 &VR Producer 2013
• Guest Lecturer forVirtual Reality, Unity for Game
Design Students @ SAE Institute London 2014
• Guest Lecturer forVirtual Reality hosted by UCL (University College
London) &TIGA for video game Start-ups 2014
• Inspiration, muse & motivator to others
• Game Jam “Veteran” since 2012

3. MY GAME JAMTIMELINE
• Global Game Jam attendee since 2012
• Guinness Book Record for the Biggest Local Game Jam in 2012, UK over 48
hours
• Game Hack at the Pinewood Studios, UK, 16th-17th November 2013
• FirstTrain Jam 2014! Approx 52 hours from Chicago to San Francisco USA
• Co-OrganiserTobii-EyeTracker Game Jam July 2015 Loading Bar London
(UK)
• Founder & Co-Organiser Global Game Jam Hannover (DE) 2016 & 2017

4. GLOBAL GAME JAM 2011 -
2017
• Global Game Jam (GGJ) in SAE Institute London, UK
• 48 Hours over the weekend
• http://globalgamejam.org
• Founder & Co-Organiser Global Game Jam
Hannover (DE) 2016 & 2017

5. GLOBAL GAME JAM HISTORY
• Founding members of Global Game Jam, Inc.Zuraida Buter, Dustin Clingman, Elonka Dunin, Susan Gold, Foaad Khosmood,
Gorm Lai, Ian Schreiber.
• Meet Gorm Lai at Starbucks next to Charing Cross before my first GGJ in London SAE 2012
• Themes:
2009: "As long as we have each other, we will never run out of problems"
2010: "Deception"
2011: "Extinction"
2012: An image of "Ouroboros"
2013: The Sound of a Heartbeat
2014: "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are"
2015: "What do we do now?"
2016: "Ritual"

6. UK GAMES JAM BREAKS
WORLD RECORD IN 2012
• 329 People
• Over 40 teams
• Hence over 40 Games
• Runner-Up (2nd) Winner
• in17 September 2012
• In the BBC News: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19622596

7. GAME HACK ATTHE PINEWOOD
STUDIOS, UK, NOVEMBER 2013
• N00Bs got results with Unity & Blender
• Teams showed games w/ Oculus DK1 & Leap Motion
• Best Catering EVER!
• http://www.pinewoodgroup.com/our-studios/uk/news/tiga-
gamehack-returns-pinewood-studios
MOI

8. GAME HACK ATTHE PINEWOOD
STUDIOS, UK, NOVEMBER 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GKM27Vr0So
MOI Again!

9. FIRSTTRAIN JAM 2013
Adriel Wallick is an independent game developer
(former Satellite builder!). In 2013 she traveled
from Boston to Seattle via Amtrak’s Empire
Builder to attend PAX Prime and decided that it
would be super fun to jam on a train across
country with her fellow game developers.
http://trainjam.com

10. TRAIN JAM EXPERIENCE
• Approx 52 hours from Chicago to San Francisco (Emeryville) USA
• Caution: Awesome, but distracting view & sight seeing!

11. TRAIN JAM
INDIE CELEBRITIES
• Phil Fish, Polytron
• FEZ Game, Indie GameThe Movie
• Rami Ismail, Vlambeer
• NuclearThrone, Ridiculous Fishing, Super Crate Box,
Serious Sam:The Random Encounter & Luftrausers)
• Robin Baumgarten, Reactor & Line Wobbler
• Well-known indie developer, game jam veteran &
creator of Line Wobbler - http://linewobbler.com

12. TRAIN JAM 2013 = AWESOMENESS
http://trainjam.com
MOI
The usual suspects ;)
MORE usual suspects ;)
PolygonTeam

13. PERSONAL NEXT MUST JAM
• Train Jam 2017 - http://trainjam.com
• Global Game Jam 2017 - INFINITY

14. WORD OF ADVICE & SOME
WISDOM…
• TheTeam: Storming, Forming, Norming or iTEAM?
• Keep the game spec low!
• 24 or 48 hours are short! REALLY!
• You can always add more (features) later
• De-scope after the Brainstorming
• Don’t forget to HAVE FUN!

15. TRY NEWSTHINGS & FAIL!
• It is ok to FAIL! It’s fun and liberating too!
• Think Rovio & Angry Birds!
• Supercell:We Pop Champagne EveryTime We Fail
• http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/rovio-overnight-angry-brids-success-51-failed-522587
• http://mashable.com/2013/11/13/supercell-apps-success/#FCBuClROSOq5
Steel Battalion revival attempt @ GGJ

16. NOW …YOU!
• YOUR GAME HERE

17. HAPPY JAMMING!
• Global Game Jam 2017 - 20 - 22 Jan 2017
• Ludum Dare 38, our 15th Anniversary:April 21-24 - http://ludumdare.com (Online Jam)
• HACKVENTION, Hannover Germany, CeBIT March 2017, TBD
• Angel Hack: http://angelhack.com
• Create your own @ https://itch.io !!!