Last time, I took a bit of time to talk about the iOS App Challenge, which you can find here: http://www.rit.edu/emcs/admissions/bca/item/the-ios-app-challenge. This week, I figure I’d give you another look at some other cool hackathons. One that the School of Interactive Games and Media hosts every year is the Global Game Jam (GGJ). GGJ is actually an international competition held alongside other locations doing the jam. Here you can actually find the main site: http://www.globalgamejam.org/.
The Game Jam runs a slightly shorter length than the App Challenge. It starts on Friday afternoon and ends Sunday afternoon, giving people a full weekend to make a game from start to finish. The idea of GGJ is to have a finished game (although prototypes are certainly okay) to submit for a final showing. Your game goes through a series of judges until it reaches the final hands of the international judges. It’s really a great way to make a cool game and possibly have it reach international acclaim.
Overall, the idea is generally the same. You go into teams (this time, no person limit) and create a game using the tools you have. You can use any computing language you want, since you’re making a game. The theme that ran this year was: “We don't see things are they are, we see them as we are.” It left a lot to be interpreted, so teams decided on the best strategy to approach this. Some of my friends participated in this year’s jam and made some cool games.
The Perspector: http://globalgamejam.org/2014/games/perspector
Russin Chicken Inspector: http://globalgamejam.org/2014/games/russian-chicken-inspector
Therapy: http://globalgamejam.org/2014/games/therapy
For more info on RIT’s participation in GGJ: http://games.rit.edu/globalgamejam