Game Jam

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Participants at the Free Knowledge Game Jam 2015 in Berlin .

A game jam is a meeting of game developers to develop a game together within a short period of time . People with different skills work together. This includes software developers , game designers , 2D and 3D artists , audio designers or musicians , but often also people with other backgrounds and amateurs . The name is derived from the jam session in music, so the focus is more on the joy of working together, and not the result. Originally only been at Game Jams computer games developed later, the concept was also on board games expanded.

The game is often developed around a theme or with restrictions. This can be, for example, a word, a motto, a sound, an image, or it can also be restricted to a special technology, for example a specific game engine . This is to encourage the creativity of the development teams.

The process of a jam usually begins with an introduction of the participants, the announcement of a motto and the formation of teams. The working groups agree on a game idea and begin to work. It is customary to stay overnight on site and to give intermediate and final presentations. The results are often not evaluated, especially as the short time often only results in fragments.

In some cases, games created during a jam are further developed. For example the Surgeon Simulator , which was originally created during the Global Game Jam 2013. Or Tri , which was first programmed at Ludum Dare in 2011. It was then developed into a commercial game for more than three years and in 2015 won the German Computer Game Award in the category “Best Youth Game ”.

The first known game jam is the 0th Indie Game Jam , at which 14 people in Oakland met in March 2002 and developed twelve experimental games over the course of four days. Since 2006, the Nordic Game Jam in Copenhagen , in which the International Game Developers Association and the IT University of Copenhagen also took part, became more professional .

Well-known examples

Presentation at the Global Game Jam 2014 in Jyväskylä .

The Global Game Jam ( GGJ ) has been an annual event that has been taking place since 2009 at the end of January, during which game jams with the same motto are held worldwide for a weekend. In 2015, people took part in 518 locations, and the events often took place at universities. As a result, 5,439 games were submitted, which can be downloaded from the organizer's website.

Ludum Dare ( LDJAM ) is a virtual event that takes place three times a year. The first event took place in 2002, back then with 18 games submitted at the end. In April 2015 there were already over 2,800 game submissions.

See also

Web links

Commons : Game jams  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kiyoshi Shin, Kosuke Kaneko, Yu Matsui, Koji Mikami, Masaru Nagaku: Localizing Global Game Jam: Designing Game Development for Collaborative Learning in the Social Context . In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science . Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg 2012, ISBN 978-3-642-34291-2 , pp. 117–132 (English, academia.edu [accessed June 29, 2020]).
  2. ↑ David Martin: German Computer Game Award 2015: All winners of the DCP 2015 at a glance - Video Update , In: PCGames .de ; dated April 22, 2015, retrieved on August 14, 2019.
  3. ↑ Chris Hecker: Indie Game Jam 0. Retrieved June 29, 2020 (English).
  4. ↑ a b Sande Chen: A Brief History of Game Jams. In: Gamasutra Blogs. September 8, 2017, accessed June 29, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Global Game Jam Press Kit. In: Global Game Jam, Inc. December 24, 2015, accessed June 29, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Ludum Dare 32. In: Ludum Dare. Retrieved June 29, 2020 (American English).