Gamers around the world took to the Twitterverse this weekend in the days building up to the Global Game Jam. The 48-hour event brought together over 6,500 amateur and professional gamers to develop games through local jam sites.
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"Who else out there in the twitterverse is making Jam? #ggj Jammers around the world represent! Spread the Jam!", gamers Tweeted in several languages this weekend.
According to NYU site organizer Matt Parker, the NYU Game Center is the third most populated jam site in the world and the largest in the U.S. with 144 registered jammers. The center has hosted the GGJ since its inception in 2009.
"Game jams are great for creating a playable prototype in a short amount of time, working in a team," Parker said. "Most games won't be complete in 48 hours, but they can make something that proves how enjoyable [being] a game mechanic is."
The theme of this year's event was "Extinction." Jammers found creative ways to provide an alternative look at dinosaur extinction and generate more unlikely victims such as polar bears, wild beasts and dictators.
Haitham Ennasr, a 25-year-old student from Parsons School of Design, described the objective of his team's game.
"Given the recent events in Egypt, dictators are an endangered species," he said. "It's 'Save them, or not!'"
Teams are formed at random before the two-day event kicks off. Gamers of all specializations, from sound to visuals to coding, are brought together to collaborate and develop a unique product.
"It's not just about programmers," said self-labeled coding specialist John Collins. "We've got artists, designers and someone for audio."
Ashley Alicea, an aspiring video game producer from Ithaca College, hopes to continue developing her team's game after the event draws to a close.
"Our game, SuperTeddyRoosevelt Clusterfuck Extreme II, has Teddy Roosevelt going around shooting down the predators causing extinction," she said. "We hope to eventually make it into an iPod app."
And whether the teams plan to continue collaborating post-Jam or not, the clearest objective of the Global Game Jam is to bring together people with a shared passion for creating games.
"This place looked like a singles bar last night," Collins said. "As the night went on, you found others who had similar ideas or needed someone with your expertise."
