MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — Interested in making a game and being part of a global experiment in creativity? SUNY Morrisville is once again serving as a host site for Global Game Jam®, the world’s largest game jam event, taking place Friday, Jan. 28-Sunday, Jan. 30.
During the worldwide event, participants are given a central theme and just 48 hours to create a video or board/card game.
Registration for the SUNY Morrisville site is open for students and non-students over the age 18 of all skills levels at https://www.morrisville.edu/events/globalgamejam. Participants must follow all campus COVID-19 protocol, including wearing masks.
During the fast-paced “jam session” teams of artists, hobbyists, programmers and gamers throughout the world are given a chance to brainstorm, innovate, collaborate and develop new ideas for game design.
The event begins at SUNY Morrisville on Friday, Jan. 28, at 4 p.m. in Charlton Hall with registration, a videoconference and unveiling of this year’s theme. Final game submissions are due at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 30, followed by a game creation preview and weekend wrap-up.
Teams, some of which are formed on-site, spend 48 hours brainstorming and designing a new video or board game from scratch without any outside help. All finished GGJ games are archived on a website for everyone to play.
Some of the games participants at the Morrisville site have created include: Traps: The Spanish Adventurer (a journey to prove capability as an adventurer, by collecting all of the gold); Ex-Extinction (Sir Captain Rawrington must save his dinosaur ancestors from the incoming asteroid onslaught); Flight Team Phoenix (pilot a phoenix spaceship and eliminate alien enemies) and Cardiac Canyon (a hiker tumbles down a cliff and must follow his heart to lead him through the dark and back to his camp).
More information about GGJ at SUNY Morrisville or contact Professor Richard Marcoux at 315.684.6788 or marcourp@morrisville.edu.
Global Game Jam® history
2009 Game Jam — 53 sites, 23 countries, 1,650 participants, 370 games
2010 Game Jam — 138 sites, 39 countries, 4,300 participants, 900 games
2011 Game Jam — 169 sites, 44 countries, 6,500 participants, 1,500 games
2012 Game Jam — 242 sites, 47 countries, 10,684 participants, 2,209 games
2013 Game Jam — 319 sites, 63 countries, 16,705 participants, 3,248 games
2014 Game Jam — 488 sites, 72 countries, 23,189 participants, 4,292 games
2015 Game Jam — 518 sites, 78 countries, 28,000 participants, 5,438 games
2016 Game Jam — 632 sites, 93 countries, 36,164 participants, 6,866 games
2017 Game Jam — 701 sites, 95 countries, 36,401 participants, 7,263 games
2018 Game Jam — 803 sites, 108 countries, 42,800 participants, 8,606 games
2019 Game Jam — 860 sites, 113 countries, 47,006 participants, 9,010 games
2020 Game Jam — 934 sites, 118 countries, 48,753 participants, 9,601 games
2021 Game Jam — 585 sites, 104 countries, 28,825 participants, 6,383 games (held online due to COVID-19 pandemic)
