global game jam overview

The Global Game Jam

www.globalgamejam.org

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?

The Global Game Jam

» Just don't talk about it, do it Look to experts for advice

Nordic Game Jam Experimental Game Play/Indie Game Jam Advisory Board

The Global Game Jam

Community

The Global Game Jam

» The Global Game Jam held it’s inaugural 48 hour Game Jam January 30th-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

The Global Game Jam

It is all about making games.

» 370 games attempted/made Several games made that weekend

have signed publishing deals

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What it has done

» Brought educators, students and industry professionals together

» Changed lives» Created experience » Reached out across the globe

The Global Game Jam

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

The Global Game Jam

» Lead by example

Susan Gold Gorm Lai Ian Schreiber

The Global Game Jam

Look for bannerat 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

The Global Game Jam

Special Thanks

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

The Global Game Jam

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?

The Global Game Jam

Game Jams as an Educational Activity?

»Practically Oriented

»Conditions @ gamejams:48 hours New team (maybe) New technologyNew workflows New gamedesign

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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

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The Importance Of Team-based Development in Educations

»Games are (mostly) made by teams; team-based development simulates the worklife-situation

The Global Game Jam

The Importance Of Team-based Development in Educations (con't)

»Important Perspectives:Communication & ManagementDocumentationInterdisciplinary communicationTechnical IssuesQA – Testing & Iterative DevelopmentSocial Dynamics

The Global Game Jam

Pen & Paper, NGJ'06, Copenhagen

The Global Game Jam

Dark Room Sex Game, NGJ'08, Copenhagen

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Pulse, Utrecht GJ, 2009

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Prototyping

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.

The Global Game Jam

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.

The Global Game Jam

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.

The Global Game Jam

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.

The Global Game Jam

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 WarfareRapid 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.

The Global Game Jam

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 Global Game Jam

The Iterative Process

KISSGame development is no exception to the KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid) rule.

SCRUM and AgileThese 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 Global Game Jam

A Sample Iterative Process

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Embracing FailureThe 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 Global Game Jam

Star-Crossed LoversA 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?

The Global Game Jam

Who am I?

Ian Schreiber

Programmer, Game Designer, Professor of Game Design

Columbus State Community CollegeSavannah College of Art and Design

http://teachingdesign.blogspot.com

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Constraints

The Global Game Jam

Constraints

The Global Game Jam

Constraints

The Global Game Jam

Types of Constraints

»Theme»Mechanics»Aesthetics»Technical

The Global Game Jam

Game Mechanics

The Global Game Jam

Game Aesthetics

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Technical Constraints

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Combinations

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

The Global Game Jam

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…

The Global Game Jam

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

The Global Game Jam

Your Turn

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

The Global Game Jam

Your Turn

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

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How did you do?

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Controlling Scope of Projects through time constraintsFoaad Koshmood

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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.

The Global Game Jam

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.

The Global Game Jam

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)

The Global Game Jam

Little Big Fort

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Little Big Fort -continued

• Beautiful graphics,

multiplayer game

• Uses a countdown clock

to pressure teams to

succeed. • Count starts at

300 seconds

The Global Game Jam

A Moose’s Love

» Game uses the position of the sun as a time indicator.

» From sunrise to sunset: roughly 4 minutes.

The Global Game Jam

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.

The Global Game Jam

Conclusion

» Time constraints are useful for judging and motivation.

» Can be handled creatively or accidentally (could be a factor in point system evaluations).

The Global Game Jam

Gorm Lai

» Indie Game Developer» IGDA Copenhagen» Co-Founder Nordic Game Jam

The Global Game Jam

Nordic Game Jam Ingredients Timeline Organization Responsibilities Conclusion

Running a Game Jam

The Global Game Jam

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

Nordic Game Jam

The Global Game Jam

Memories

Pen & Paper ( NGJ 06 )

Dark Room Sex Game ( NGJ 08 )

Make My Head Grow ( NGJ 09 )

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Necessities

Venue Electricity Network Constraints/Affordances Creativity Good Spirit

The Global Game Jam

Helpers Computers Development Software Group Forming Catering Helpers

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Options Talks Competitions Jury

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Work Schedule - Before

September. 1st Organizers Meeting

October. Announcement

November. Sign up, weekly organizers meetings

The Global Game Jam

Work Schedule - Before December. Practicalities mostly in place; volunteers, talks, constraints, catering

January. Press releases, gathering money, final preparations

The Global Game Jam

Work Schedule - During Friday. Registrations, announcing constraints, creating groups

Saturday

Sunday. Collecting games, handling jury, presenting games

The Global Game Jam

Work Schedule - After Press Releases

Follow ups. Sponsors, jury, panel, speakers

Web Site

Accounting

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Organization

The Global Game Jam

Responsibilities HR & Organization!

Budget & Money

Social Exercises

Press, Jury & Networking

Catering

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Responsibilities Participants (Students)

Equipment

The Global Game Jam

Responsibilities Participants (Professionals)

Constraints & Affordances

Event Managers

Web site

Sign upgradually taking over Diginet's role

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Conclusion

Partnerships Constraints The Spirit of the Jam Follow up

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More Memories?

4m & 33s of Uniqueness

Bipole

300 games +

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Questions?

gorm@lai.as

The Global Game Jam

Game Jamsand Game Studies

» miguel sicart

» assistant professor

» IT University of Copenhagen

» game.itu.dk

» miguel@itu.dk

The Global Game Jam

My 20 minutes of fame

» Game studies?» Three examples» The importance of jamming» Theorizing for the future

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Game Studies: the field» Academic discipline

that studies games from a humanities/social sciences perspective.

» Started ca. 2000» gamestudies.org» Games and Culture

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Game Studies: research

» Game studies is concerned with the nature and cultural meaning of games.

» Applying the humanities/social sciences method to understanding games.

The Global Game Jam

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

The Global Game Jam

5 Minutes MMO

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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.

The Global Game Jam

4 minutes and 33 seconds of Uniqueness

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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.

The Global Game Jam

Move Mouse to Fulfill Destiny

The Global Game Jam

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 Global Game Jam

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.

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Jams are freedom(for research)

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Theorizing for the future

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» 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.

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

The Global Game Jam

Thanks!miguel@itu.dk

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