GGJ Play Party 2015

A diverse lineup of games was shown at the Global Game Jam Play Party this year, hosted once again by DePaul CDM. Dozens of people had fun scrambling for supplies in space stations, exploring a sequence of surreal vignettes, and wearing different hats. Six out of the twenty six games developed in Chicago were presented at the event, including:

• Alone with Hats – A quirky 2D platforming game where players gain different abilities from wearing different hats

• Cosmic Equalizer – A surreal 3D game that is “a space symphony about the inevitability of death” (play it here)

• Project 2201 – Players memorization and hand coordination skills are put to the test in this top-down action game, where the input keys are randomized each playthrough (play it here)

• Space Scavengers – In this 2D co-op game, players race to collect enough supplies from abandoned space stations before its imminent destruction

• Two Rats, One Cage – A 2D puzzle game where players simultaneously navigate two rats out of a series of dangerous experiments (play it here)

• Vision Quest – Players guide a fox, an eagle, and a fish in search of the sacred totems in this 3D adventure game (play it here)

Thank you to everyone who came by or presented their game, and to Allen Turner for helping to co-organise and photograph the event! Check out the photos for the party on IGDA Chicago’s Flickr page!

GGJ Play Party 2014

There was a fantastic line-up of games at the Global Game Jam Play Party last Thursday. Some were artistic, others experimental, while still some others were quirky and innovative in their own right. Most, if not all of them, gave their own take on this year’s GGJ theme: “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

Hosted by DePaul CDM, the Play Party featured 11 games, which were developed at both DePaul University and PETAL et al. during the Global Game Jam. From surreal Jean Giraud-inspired environments, to procedurally generated mazes, there was a wide range of games that kept people entertained throughout the night.

You could communicate with characters using a physical microphone in games such as A Night on the Town, frantically prepare for a party through a multi-perspective layout reminiscent of graphic novels in You Call This a Party?, and go on an auditory journey through 1980s America in the Choose Your Own Adventure-inspired game Precinct Midnight.

All in all, the Play Party was a huge success, just as the Global Game Jam was at DePaul University and PETAL et al. A huge thank you to everyone who came by and to Allen Turner for helping to co-organise the event!

Hosting A Successful Game Jam

Two years ago I hosted my first game jam. This was my first time organizing something involving so many creative individuals. Since it was just friends gathered in my then tiny apartment there really wasn’t much pressure. The event itself was more of casual riffing and hanging out. This year, I helped host the IGDA Chicago Game Jam. I was used to participating in game jams, but had never planned anything on such a large scale. This blog post will hopefully outline what I thought helped make it a success.

Had a Strong Team

No one can plan a game jam by themselves. You need a strong team to get stuff done. This event would not have been successful with the strong team of the IGDA Chicago. Some people got the pizza, other awesome team members landed top speakers. I felt lucky to the Steve Kerr, to their Michael Jordan (That’s a Chicago basketball reference). I appreciate the judges, the local industry members, our great keynote speakers, and everyone who donated their time.

Solid Theme

For the game jam, our theme was death.  The theme was perfect since the game jam fell on the weekend before Halloween. At first I thought that the theme may have been too broad. I thought that most teams would create similar concepts because of this fact. (On Saturday morning, most people jokingly said that they were adding Death Metal into their game.) It turns out that this wasn’t a problem as everyone interpreted the theme in wildly different games.

Had the People Play the Games.

As Herm Edwards once said, “You play to win the game!” (Hello? that’s my second sports reference). Weirdly enough, most of the game jams that I attended did not encourage people to play each other’s game. Judges of the jams usually based the winners on the team presentations rather than how the games played. For this game jam, we made it a point to have the judges play the games before the teams presented. I think this helped them have a much better idea on what the teams were able to complete during the weekend. Other teams also got up, and played each other’s games. This was a much needed catharsis after a busy 2 and a half days. I think that the teams really enjoyed the camaraderie from actually playing. Seriously, ALL of the games were awesome. I really hope people continue these projects.

Planning and hosting a game jam was much different than being a participant. The experience was enjoyable for different reasons. It was awesome to look out and see the room be filled and know that I had a hand in it. I was still exhausted by the end of it, but it was nice to hang out instead of having to worry about bug hunting. At the same time, hosting a jam is a great responsibility. I wanted to make sure that everyone had a great time while maintaining the space that our gracious hosts let us use. I really want to host more jams in the future. Now that I have this experience under my belt, I’d love to host another. Until next year, fellow jammers!

Play The Games!

Thank You

Special shout out to the Nerdery for letting us use their great facility. We wouldn’t have had a such a successful event without it. Also, thank you to Eugene Jarvis who did the keynote. Kyle Bailey, Carter Dotson, and Dave Fulton for performing the difficult task of judging so many great games. Thanks to all of our industry mentors who stopped by to lend advice. Thanks to all of our sponsors for the great prizes provided as well.