The Global Game Jam, an event gathering teams around the world to create a game around a central theme in 48 hours, is set to take place from January 30th to February 1st.
While individual and regional Game Jams have been held in recent years, this will be the first attempted Global Game Jam. Over 1,000 participants gathered at 52 sites spread across 22 different countries are expected to compete.
Details for the game's themes, constraints, and allowed mechanics will be given at 5:00 PM local time in each region. Each time zone will receive different constraints to reduce any advantages one location might receive over another due to their start
2D Boy (
World of Goo) co-founder Kyle Gabler will deliver a keynote for the worldwide event, which will broadcast on YouTube before Global Game Jam begins in its first site in New Zealand. Ustream.tv will also stream participants' activities from many of the different locations.
Once the event is completed, the created games will be hosted
on Global Game Jam's official site for users to download, play, and rate. Source code for the titles will also be available.
The most innovative creations will eventually be featured at IGDA Education Summit, taking place March 23rd to 24th during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
“I was looking for a project that explored the incredibly innovative and collaborative nature of video games, and the result is the Global Game Jam, a unique idea space and an amazing experiment in creativity,” says Global Game Jam founder Susan Gold.
She continues, "There is tremendous enthusiasm for the event, demonstrated by the number of locations willing to host it, which really shows the strength and commitment of the game development community. 48 hours isn’t a lot of time to make a game, but I’m confident we’re going to have some really fun games come out of the GGJ.”
