Speaker Phd fellow Jeanette Falk Olesen at the Playful University conference at Aarhus University on the 8th of august 2019 in Aarhus Denmark

1. Game Jams in Educations
An Overview
Jeanette Falk Olesen, PhD fellow, Aarhus University

2. Agenda
• Game jam
• Outcomes of game jams
• Organizing game jams for learning

3. What is a game jam?
A game jam is an accelerated opportunistic game creation event
where a game is created in a relatively short timeframe exploring
given design constraint(s) and end results are shared publically
- Annakaisa Kultima

4. Low risk
Intentional short timeframe
Few negative consequences for ”failing”
Safe environment for risk taking, exploration and innovation

5. Besides making a game,
a lot is at play in a game jam

6. We use game jams in many contexts
• Indie game developers
• Game studios (In-house game development)
• Aspiring game developers
• Hobbyists
• Students
• Children
• Quantum physicists
• Researchers

7. CHI 2018
The CHI 2018 Game Jam brings members of the community
together to make analog and/or digital games with the belief
that creation is not only collaborative, but an underexplored area
of research.

8. Average 3,12
Jammers rating the quality of
their game
Average 4,14
Jammers rating how the game
jam affected their
programming, art and design
skills
Preston, J; Chastine, J; O’Donnell, C; Tseng, T; MacIntyre, B: ”Game Jams: Community, Motivations, and Learning among Jammers.”

9. A contemporary continuation of a long
pedagogic trend
Game jam learning ties into the pedagogical traditions of
learning by doing, informal learning and collaborative problem
solving. This lends it credibility: while educational game jamming
may be a new form of doing, it is not a radical departure from
more established forms of learning and teaching [...] With the
rising interest in both learning through playful means and
technology-assisted learning, game jam learning can be seen as
a contemporary continuation of a long pedagogic trend.
Mikko Meriläinen: Game jamming for learning and teaching: a review of the literature

10. Expectations for new game jammers
Preston, J; Chastine, J; O’Donnell, C; Tseng, T; MacIntyre, B: ”Game Jams: Community, Motivations, and Learning among Jammers.”
Advance my skills 91,1%
To gain a better understanding of the
game development process
89,9%
Connecting with others in my field 86,1%
A passion for making games 81,0%
To try something new 67,1%
Increase the visibility of my work 59,5%
Interact with sponsors 51,9%
For the food 34,2%
For prizes/awards 27,8%

11. Outcomes of game jams

12. A full game development cycle
Game jams can be seen as: ”…the compressed development
process of conceptualizing a game and realizing the game in a
working product”
”[N]othing has helped me understand what goes into making a
game better than the time I've put into rapid development
events”
Soul, e-mail interview, September 16, 2010, Orlando Guevara-Villalobos: Cultures of independent game production:
Examining the relationship between community and labour.
Alexander Zook and Mark O. Riedl: Game Conceptualization and Development Processes in the Global Game Jam

13. Christer Kaitila: https://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-a-game-jam--gamedev-437

14. Petrillo, F., Pimenta, M., Trindade, F., and Dietrich, C.: What Went Wrong? A Survey of Problems in Game Development

15. Petrillo, F., Pimenta, M., Trindade, F., and Dietrich, C.: What Went Wrong? A Survey of Problems in Game Development

16. Christer Kaitila: https://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-a-game-jam--gamedev-437

17. Interdisciplinary skills
Game jams as informal STEM learning environment
Allan Fowler: Informal STEM Learning in Game Jams, Hackathons and Game Creation Events

18. Allan Fowler: Informal STEM Learning in Game Jams, Hackathons and Game Creation Events

19. Social skills
• Getting people to help me
• Communicating ideas to others
• Influencing the team
• Understanding skills of others
• Making friends
• Carrying on conversations
• Expressing opinions when others disagree
Peter A Smith and Clint Bowers: Improving Social Skills through Game Jam Participation

20. Organizing game jams for learning
Several authors mention that a key element of the jam as a
learning experience is the existence of a healthy, safe space for
creativity, exploration and communication – something that is not
a given if attention is not devoted to it
Mikko Meriläinen: Game jamming for learning and teaching: a review of the literature

21. Book on using game jams in educations
Cornish, S., Farber, M., Fleming, A., & Miklasz, K. (2017). The Game
Jam Guide. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University: ETC Press.
(Free download)

22. Example on game jams for educations
The GGJ NEXT: https://ggjnext.org/ (for children and young
creators, age 12-17)

23. Game.Play.Design Summer school, Aarhus
University
The bulk of the literature of the course is put in week 1 - that is because
we want to give you lots of time to make awesome games - and not
just any kind of awesome games - but academically awesome games
(it is a MA course, right?)
It is important that you read the literature ahead of the course as you
will all be busy making games from day 1
• Theory focused
• Critical council

24. Thank you for listening!
Jeanette Falk Olesen, PhD fellow at Aarhus University
jfo@cc.au.dk
@Jfalkolesen
Images from unsplash