Morrisville State College students will be among thousands of participants from all over the world taking part in the 2013 International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Global Game Jam (GGJ) Jan. 25-27 and the college will once again serve as a host site for the growing event.
Amateurs, professionals, students, faculty, hobbyists and those with a passion for making games are invited to participate in the GGJ which challenges aspiring designers to brainstorm and build a game in a 48-hour time frame.
So far, there are more than 260 GGJ host locations across the globe, including sites in Poland, South Africa, Brazil, Egypt, Ireland and England. Morrisville State College is one of few host sites in New York state.
Registration is now being accepted for anyone 18 years or older interested in participating at the Morrisville State College GGJ site.
Participants meet at the college on Friday, Jan.25 at 5 p.m. in Charlton Hall. At that time, they will be given a theme, break into teams which will be formed on-site, then spend the weekend designing a new game from scratch without any outside help.
Each team will have until 3 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 27 to create their game. The event will be held in classrooms on the second floor of Charlton Hall. After all the games have been submitted, each team will present its game to all participants.
Snacks and beverages will be provided throughout the weekend by the Morrisville Auxiliary Corporation (MAC). All finished GGJ games will be archived onto a Game Jam website for everyone to play.
The Global Game Jam is recognized as the largest in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records.
For more information or to register to participate at the Morrisville State College Game Jam site, go to www.morrisville.edu/gamejam, call Richard Marcoux, PhD., assistant professor and chair of the computer and information technology department, at 315.684.6788 or e-mail him at marcourp@morrisville.edu. For more information about Global Game Jam, visit www.globalgamejam.org.
Past Event Themes
2009 - "As long as we have each other, we will never run out of problems"
2010 - "Deception"
2011 - "Extinction"
2012 - An image of Ouroboros
Game Jam history
2009 Game Jam—53 locations across the globe, 1,650 participants created 370 games
2010 Game Jam—138 sites, 4,300 participants created 900 games
2011 Game Jam—169 sites, 6,500 participants created more than 1,500 games
2012 Game Jam—242 locations (47 countries), more than 10,684 participants created 2,209 games. Jam sites were organized in a record 47 countries, including for the first time in Hungary, Iran, Panama, Peru, Romania and Uruguay.