Boston Game Jams, by Darren Torpey

Boston Game Jams:

Boston Game Jams The growing pro/am game-making community and what it means for students and new devs

Darren Torpey:

Worcester Polytechnic Institute '04 and '07 (BS & MS in CS) Founding member of the WPI Game Development Club Boston Game Jams More on this later in the talk! Boston Indies Blog and general community management Punchbowl.com Darren Torpey

What's a game jam?:

What's a game jam? People get together Form teams Make games Share them with each other In a weekend (typically)

Boston Game Jams:

Boston Game Jams Started in April 2010 Saw lots of students, pros, and "indies" greatly interested I saw how game jams re-awoke peoples' fires to make games Including mine! First Global Game Jam was a giant kick-in-the-pants Five jams so far DINO, Immigration, Lunar, HTML5 Tools, & Cardboard Ad-hoc team creation w/ group ideation process Sat 9am - 11pm, Sun 9am - 5pm + presentations! Website for announcements, follow-up news, sharing with the greater public, and historical archiving

Just making small games?    :

Just making small games? Sometimes they lead to a lot more... Share those games with the world at large End up inspiring other games Release tools they created or improved in the process Angel framework started this way Akihabara improvements have followed from this as well Long-term teams form Long-term friendships, too

What makes jamming so awesome?:

What makes jamming so awesome? Safe environment to explore new ideas No one will judge your game poorly... seriously As long as you put your all into it and don't cheap out Humble games, but with ambitious design goals Demonstrate human dynamics? Kind of like a special formula... Gives a specific time to actually sit down and make games Also provides a limit on that time Result: magic bubble of creativity and collaboration

Illustrations:

Illustrations Smuggle Truck Owlchemy Labs

Illustrations:

Illustrations Perchance to Dream Reactive Games

Pro/am community?:

Pro/am community? People of all skill levels, backgrounds, and experience levels Networking Learn what others are good at and what they care about And the same for yourself! Idea sharing, feedback, development Can help people "break in" to the local dev scene Gives people a way to remember you Provides a good starting point for networking e.g. "Amanda and I made that rhythm game together at GGJ 2010"

Game Jams are awesome for students:

Game Jams are awesome for students Even newbies get to earn "street cred" You are actually makings games Build critical teamwork skills Learning how to work with others, express ideas, etc. Great for meeting new people and showing what you've got Demonstrate people skills ( very important ) Portfolio building Help create small, discrete games to demonstrate Feasible to polish these games into strong examples of your work The fact that you made the game with others is a plus

Questions?:

Questions? Keep in touch! darren@bostongamejams.com @darrentorpey @bostongamejams