I’ve finally had the chance to go through all my videos and emails and put together a proper recap for the game jam Emily Daniels and I (Darren Torpey) threw in April of this year. It was essentially the first Boston Game Jams jam, per se, though at the time we kept the namesake given to it (by Darius at the previous jam in February) and called it “DINO Jam” because it was hosted courtesy of DINO Interactive Studios.
I really liked seeing the diversity of game styles and platforms used at this jam. For example, we had Dave Ludwig using openFrameworks, a C++ framework designed to help artists create interesting interactive art installations. Other teams made games using custom-built C++ engine, and three people (each on our own team, by chance) made their games using the newly-released HTML5-based game engine, Akihabara.
I was also a great joy to have Vickie Wu introducing her “Food Jam” concept for the first time at this jam. She cruised around Davis Square shopping at local bakeries and grocery marts and let the local flavors inspire her creations. And those creations were mighty tasty and a very welcome addition to the game jam experience. Several jammers commented that having some new, fun, and tasty food to sample every few hours kept their minds and bodies alert and refreshed. I cannot recommend this concept strongly enough for other game jams. It’s a blast and adds a lot to the atmosphere of creativity.
I’ll never forget the first day of the jam, Saturday, when the weather was so great out that every one of us moved our tables outside and we spent half of the day getting sun tans while working on our games. Vickie served us a beautiful fresh fruit platter (among other things), which perfectly sealed the deal. It was total bliss with a bunch of great folks, out in the sun.
You can check out all the games, including links to download and play many of them, on the permanent recap page for April 2010 DINO Jam.
Here are the YouTube videos of the presentations we gave of our games at the end of the jam:
