This weekend will see a global outburst of collaborative energy. The first-ever Global Game Jam is an international event in which teams of game developers will have 48 hours to create a new video game. Game Jam will take place in more than 40 cities in the United States, Europe, Africa, South America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Israel. More than 1,750 people have already signed up to take part.
Game Jams are becoming popular around the world, but this is the first to be organized on a global scale. The Internet and streaming video will tie the simultaneous events together.
Locally, the hub of activity will be at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), where students focus on creating new games and preparing for careers in the industry. ETC is a local host site for the event, along with the Pittsburgh chapter of the International Game Developers Association.
"There's a feeling in the industry that the next innovations and the next big game ideas are going to come from independent game developers," says Tracy Kobeda Brown, event coordinator for the Pittsburgh Game Jam.
Game Jam is open to game creators of all skill levels. Teams will include game designers, artists, sound designers and programmers.
The local event has a limit of 75 people, and only a few openings remain. Participants will be organized into small teams, who'll brainstorm and collaborate on the project. They'll have 48 hours --with little or no sleep -- to develop and execute their ideas. Games created during the weekend will be archived on the Global Game Jam Web site.
Those interested in participating here can register online at: globalgamejam-pgh.com.
The keynote speaker is Kyle Gabler, developer of the game World of Goo -- and an ETC alumni. "The next big transformation in gaming won't come from a large game studio with million-dollar teams and marketing budgets," Gabler says. "It will come from some kid in their bedroom with a few pieces of free software and a never-ending supply of caffeine and motivation. I can't wait to see the scraggly, brilliantly hacked together, beginnings of some of the next great games crawl out of these 48 hours."
The marathon Game Jam will take place across 14 time zones, starting in Dunedin and Hamilton, New Zealand, and ending in the United States on the West Coast.
The Game Jam starts Friday at 5 p.m. and ends Sunday at 5 p.m. The registration fee is $10, which reserves a seat and defrays food costs. The ETC is at 700 Technology Drive in the Pittsburgh Technology Center, along Second Avenue.
People will be able to follow the event online, with streams coming out of several locations around the world. (ustream.tv/channel).
First Published: January 28, 2009, 5:00 a.m.
