Download - Global Game Jam Overview
The Global Game Jam
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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?
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» Just don't talk about it, do it Look to experts for advice
Nordic Game Jam Experimental Game Play/Indie Game Jam Advisory Board
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Community
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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
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It is all about making games.
» 370 games attempted/made Several games made that weekend
have signed publishing deals
The Global Game Jam
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What it has done
» Brought educators, students and industry professionals together
» Changed lives» Created experience » Reached out across the globe
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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
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» Lead by example
Susan Gold Gorm Lai Ian Schreiber
The Global Game Jam
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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
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Special Thanks
» Anders Højsted» Stephen Jacobs» Sean Kauppinen» Foaad Koshmood» Zach Lehman» Miguel Sicart» Darren Torpey
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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
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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
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The Importance Of Team-based Development in Educations (con't)
»Important Perspectives:Communication & ManagementDocumentationInterdisciplinary communicationTechnical IssuesQA – Testing & Iterative DevelopmentSocial Dynamics
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Pen & Paper, NGJ'06, Copenhagen
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Dark Room Sex Game, NGJ'08, Copenhagen
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Pulse, Utrecht GJ, 2009
The Global Game Jam
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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.
The Global Game Jam
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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The Iterative Process
A Sample Iterative Process
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The Iterative Process
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
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The Iterative Process
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
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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
The Global Game Jam
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Constraints
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Constraints
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Constraints
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Types of Constraints
»Theme»Mechanics»Aesthetics»Technical
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Theme
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Game Mechanics
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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)
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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…
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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
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Your Turn
»Each group:»Share your constraint with the other groups at your table.
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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
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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.
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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)
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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
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A Moose’s Love
» Game uses the position of the sun as a time indicator.
» From sunrise to sunset: roughly 4 minutes.
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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.
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The Global Game Jam
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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
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Gorm Lai
» Indie Game Developer» IGDA Copenhagen» Co-Founder Nordic Game Jam
The Global Game Jam
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Nordic Game Jam Ingredients Timeline Organization Responsibilities Conclusion
Running a Game Jam
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World's biggest jam 159 Participants 4 years running Experimentation!
Nordic Game Jam
The Global Game Jam
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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
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More?
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
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Work Schedule - Before December. Practicalities mostly in place; volunteers, talks, constraints, catering
January. Press releases, gathering money, final preparations
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Work Schedule - During Friday. Registrations, announcing constraints, creating groups
Saturday
Sunday. Collecting games, handling jury, presenting games
The Global Game Jam
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Work Schedule - After Press Releases
Follow ups. Sponsors, jury, panel, speakers
Web Site
Accounting
Misc
The Global Game Jam
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Organization
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Responsibilities HR & Organization!
Budget & Money
Social Exercises
Press, Jury & Networking
Catering
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Responsibilities Participants (Students)
Venue
Equipment
Press
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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
Pulse
Bipole
300 games +
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Game Jamsand Game Studies
» miguel sicart
» assistant professor
» IT University of Copenhagen
» game.itu.dk
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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Move Mouse to Fulfill Destiny
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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.
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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.