LSU Global Game Jam

About the Global Game Jam

Innovation - Experimentation - Collaboration: The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the world's largest game jam event (game creation). This is LSU’s third 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 afternoon (~3:00PM; registration at 2:30PM) 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 2015, there were 518 locations in 78 countries creating over 5,400 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/or school counselor/chaperone). Do not come to the Jam with a team. Everyone will have some time to think and pitch an idea. Teams will be selected onsite! 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.

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.

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.

Registration: $25 registration fee per person. The first 100 registered participants to pay will secure a spot in the Jam. Others will be placed on a waiting list.

1. Register on the Global Game Jam page (you will have to create an account first). Payment is not required at this step.
2. Volunteer by emailing leaanne (at) cct.lsu.edu if interested for FREE registration.
3. Before the Jam, you will be contacted by LSU CCT (Center for Computation & Technology) for payment. Visa, MasterCard or Discover accepted. $25 per person. Note: LSU CCT will have some loaner laptops to checkout if you do not have a machine. Please request one when you submit your payment form (distributed on a first come basis).