LSU Global Game Jam 2015

Innovation - Experimentation - Collaboration: The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the world's largest game jam event (game creation). This is LSU’s second year as a participant in this exciting development festival. Think of it as a hackathon focused on game development. It is the growth of an idea that in today’s heavily connected world, we can come together, be creative, share experiences and express ourselves in a multitude of ways using video games – it is very universal. The weekend stirs a global creative buzz in games, while at the same time exploring the process of development, be it programming, iterative design, narrative exploration or artistic expression. It is all condensed into a 48 hour development cycle. The GGJ encourages people with all kinds of backgrounds to participate and contribute to this global spread of game development and creativity.

The game jam starts on Friday late afternoon (~5:00PM) for the video keynote, advice from leading game developers, and then a secret theme is announced. All sites worldwide are then challenged to make games based on that same theme, with games to be completed by Sunday afternoon. In January 2014, there were 488 locations in 72 countries creating over 4,000 games in one weekend! The jam is known for helping foster new friendships, increase confidence and create opportunities within the community. The jam is always an intellectual challenge. People are invited to explore new technology tools, try on new roles in development and test their skills to do something that requires them to design, develop, create, test and make a new game in the time span of 48 hours.

The GGJ is open source, hardware & software agnostic and all projects are protected under a Creative Commons license. We encourage people to try out new ideas and push themselves, within reason. Many games developed in previous Game Jams have become fully realized games. We also strongly encourage participants to remember to eat and sleep, to stay at their best!

Who: Age 18+, amateurs through professionals (minors allowed if accompanied by their legal guardian). Do not come to the Jam with a team. Everyone will have some time to think and pitch an idea. Collaborate with new friends or peers you admire. Although having computer skills is helpful, code experience is not necessary. Designers, developers, artists and anyone is welcome to try their hand at making a game during the GGJ. View FAQ's for more information.

Registration: $25/per person. Please register/login as soon as possible to reserve a spot, payment due on January 9, 2015 (you will be contacted after registration for "How to Pay" information--you do NOT have to provide payment at registration). REGISTRATION OPENING MID-NOVEMBER! Remember to pick Louisiana State University as your location. You can find more registration information at the main GGJ site (http://globalgamejam.org/). Note: registration fee includes breakfast and dinners, along with a midnight snack. Every user must fill out a profile which is available from your account page. Additionally, you can write a public biography about yourself under "My account". After registering via the Global Game Jam site, you will be contacted by LSU for payment. It is strongly recommended that you bring a laptop to the event with the software that you think you will need.

Global Liability: The Global Game Jam is supposed to be fun and collaborative, with a goal to keep things very simple. As a rule, we expect that no team/makers of a game will illegally exploit others' IP, and that in turn, everything created becomes part of the public domain. All participants agree that their participation in the Global Game Jam will hold no one liable for any loss or damage. The Global Game Jam reserves the right to refuse to allow anyone to participate at any time for any reason or no reason at all. This includes after the game jam has already started.

LSU Site Specific Information: Schedule - Rules - Software: Coming soon!

Volunteer: The Digital Media Arts and Engineering Program at LSU's Center for Computation & Technology relies on LSU students to help run the LSU Global Game Jam. If you are interested in volunteering for a block of hours (or just a few), please contact Lea Anne Landry at leaanne (at) cct.lsu.edu or 225-578-5433. Volunteers receive complimentary registration to the GGJ with 5 hours of service.

Contact: Marc Aubanel [maubanel (at) cct.lsu.edu] or Karen Jones [kjones (at) cct.lsu.edu] for more information or sponsorship opportunities.