Hi jammers,
Just a heads up that Ludum Dare Boston is coming up in less than two weeks.
“Work by yourself or in a team to create a game for Ludum Dare within 48 hours. Hang out with other developers, eat free food, and drink free beer.”
You can learn more about the event on their official site. You can register, for free, here.
]]>I have two great announcements for this weekend’s Fall 2011 Boston HTML5 Game Jam (Nov 19th and 20th). First, to make our tummies happy, MocoSpace is graciously sponsoring us with pizza for the entire event. MocoSpace is a social gaming platform company; here are a few quick quotes from their website:
MocoSpace is the premiere partner for developers looking to get their high quality social games in front of millions of mobile users.
[about the MocoSpace Games platform]
Our users spend over an hour a day on MocoSpace with their mobile devices. With the MocoSpace Game Platform, you can tap into the social graph, access profiles, and send notifications and invites through our API. You can even deliver game notifications straight to your players’ mobile phones!
Second, Dominic Szablewski, the author of the much-esteemed Impact HTML5 game engine, has generously offered us a complimentary Impact license for use by teams in this game jam. The license is non-commercial, so teams that take their games beyond this weekend’s jam all the way to being published will need to buy their own license, but otherwise we are free to use it as needed this weekend. Impact runs on all HTML5 capable browsers: Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer 9, as well as mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad. It should be a great boost to any teams who don’t already have a preferred engine to work with. Thanks, Dominic!
You can register for the jam here on the Eventbrite page. Feel free to leave any comments and questions below.
]]>Update: we now have food sponsorship from MocoSpace and a license to Impact HTML5 game engine for the jam — read more here
HTML5 technology is now supported by all major smartphones and desktop web browsers and HTML5 game dev is starting to really take off around Boston, so let’s jam!
This will be a relatively typical game jam: artists, audio engineers, designers, writers, producers, and programmers (and more?) will work together in small teams to make videogames. Only this time, they will all be build on HTML5 tech, which means we can run them effortlessly on any modern computer, smartphone, or tablet.
So why HTML5? HTML5 tech allows for building games on a truly standards-based and ubiquitous technology platform, and it also lends itself (in its current state) toward producing simpler games, which fits our game jam format really well.
Where? When? How Much? Why?!
When:
November 19th and 20th, 2011
Sat: 9am – 11pm
Sun: 9am – 6pm
Where:
Singapore/
Building
,
Cambridge, MA
Cost:
As always, it’s free!
Why:
Boston rocks at game jams and it’s time to kick it HTML5-style!
What to bring:
A laptop or whatever creation/organization tools you usually use to make games or that you think might be helpful.
Hosted By:
Darren Torpey (darren AT boston game jams DOT com)
Registration/RSVP
What’s a game jam?
A game jam is an event where people of all disciplines come together to create interesting interactive works.
I’ve written up a more thorough Q & A for game jams on the Game Jams page.
What if I don’t know Javascript or HTML5 tech?
Unless you’re a programmer, the platform choice of HTML5 shouldn’t affect your work much, if at all. HTML5 tech supports all manner of 2D and 3D artwork, and most music formats (including MP3 and OGG). So long as each team has a programmer who can work with the HTML5 tech, you’re all set.
If you’re a programmer, but need to learn or brush up on your Javascript knowledge and skills or you just need to learn about HTML5 technology specifically, I have collected a bunch of resources here to help you prepare for the jam. You do not have to be an “HTML5 wizard” to succeed in the jam. Sometimes the simplest games are the best and we’ll have knowledgable HTML5 devs there to help with specific questions and challenges as they arise.
Sponsorship welcome!
If you or your company would like to sponsor the food for the event, email me (darren _AT_ bostongamejams _DOT_ com) to discuss details. Thanks!
I’m just here for the food: Vickie’s FOOD JAM
My wife, Vickie Torpey, likes to do a mini-jam of her own, but her creative specialty is making TASTY THINGS, so she likes to prepare us lots of delicious food (aka “yummies for our tummies”) to keep our bellies happy and the creative juices flowing! What’s more, she does it live with us on location, improvising with limited resources, in full “jam” style. :)
Also: Vickie’s can make her food very veggie/vegan/allergy friendly, so just let us know about your special needs when you register.
We had a great time at last weekend’s Cardboard Jam. Our theme was “OCCUPY” and five teams made five fully playable games. We’re collecting the full design and instructional documents from each team to post up on a permanent page for the event, but for now here are some pictures from the event, courtesy of Michael Carriere (thanks, Mike!).
Fall 2011 Cardboard Jam photos (October, 2011)
Please contact [email protected] (Mike took the photos for Boston Indies) for any information regarding the pictures or their contents.
Don’t forget to save the date for our upcoming HTML5 jam: Nov. 19th and 20th, 2011.
]]>The location and details are TBD, but it’s official: the Fall 2011 HTML5 Game Jam will be Sat+Sun November 19th and 20th, so save the date!
I’ll be posting some learning materials for those who are new to HTML5 game programming on this blog in the coming weeks. If you’re a games programmer (or web programmer) but don’t know HTML5 stuff yet, fear not. I believe you can easily pick it up in next 4-5 weeks and be ready to jam it up by mid-November.Remember: it’s a game jam — a great place to learn new technology and try new game concepts!
Update — people have asked me this a few times already, so it’s worth a quick note:
Developers of all backgrounds are more than welcome to attend. We often have visual artists of all types: 2D and 3D, hand-drawn and computer-drawn as well as audio engineers/artists, designers, producers, and writers in addition to dedicated programmers. You are also welcome to take on multiple roles. Each team works best when it uses its members greatest talents to the full. It makes the events more interesting and the games even better, more unique creations that reflect those who made them.
Also: if you have a game dev-related interests/talents/background but have little or no experience making games, that’s okay, too. Just come with the spirit of open collaboration, learning, and fun and you’ll be all set!
]]>
As promised, the next Boston Game Jam will be the Fall 2011 Cardboard Jam, on October 8th and 9th at GAMBIT.
As before, please bring your friends who love design and board or card games but whom are afraid of the whole programming/tech side of game jams. If that you, then now’s your chance to bring yourself to a jam!
The beauty of this jam is that the technology barrier is waaaaaaay lower — anyone can cut out pieces of paper, write with a pen, and organize objects on a board! We’ll also be adding a bit more structure this time to facilitate play-testing and the peer feedback process.
Where? When? How Much? Why?!
When:
October 8th and 9th, 2011
Sat: 9am – 11pm
Sat: 9am – 6pm
Where:
Singapore/
Building
,
Cambridge, MA
Cost:
Free!
Why:
Because Boston still needs more independent game development and open, creative collaboration and innovation. And because making non-digital games lowers the barrier of entry and allows anyone to try their hand at game design in a collaborative environment. The April CBJ was a huge success, so we’re bringing it back!
What to bring:
Paper, cardboard, playing card decks, dice, etc. Anything that will help you design and implement your game! Notebooks are encouraged, though we’ll have lots of whiteboard space for collaborate design.
Hosted By:
Darren Torpey (darren AT boston game jams DOT com)
Rik Eberhardt (reberhar AT mit DOT edu)
Registration/RSVP
At this jam we’ll focus more than ever on using constraints to inspire creativity in the design process and on cross-team collaboration. In particular, we will be playtesting each others’ games a lot at this jam.
What’s a game jam?
A game jam is an event where people of all disciplines come together to create interesting interactive works.
I’ve written up a more thorough Q & A for game jams on the Game Jams page.
Sponsorship welcome!
If you or your company would like to sponsor the food for the event, email me (darren _AT_ bostongamejams _DOT_ com) to discuss details. Thanks!
EXTRA SUPER MEGA BONUS 2000: Vickie’s FOOD JAM
My wife, Vickie Torpey, likes to do a mini-jam of her own, but her creative specialty is making TASTY THINGS, so she likes to prepare us lots of delicious food (aka “yummies for our tummies”) to keep our bellies happy and the creative juices flowing! What’s more, she does it live with us on location, improvising with limited resources, in full “jam” style. :)
Also: Vickie’s can make her food very veggie/vegan/allergy friendly, so just let us know about your special needs when you register.
I don’t have the details to announce yet, but mark Oct 8th and 9th on your calendar for this Fall’s Cardboard Jam! The April Cardboard Jam (the very first!) was a huge success, so I’m really psyched to be doing another one. Things will kick into high gear soon once I’m back from vacation (honeymoon!), so stay tuned and expect the formal announcement within two weeks.
]]>I just wanted to post a quick note to break the conspicuous silence of this blog since last April’s Cardboard Jam.
I have decided to take the summer off since most people are far too busy on weekends doing such things as camping and hanging out at the beach to make it to a game jam, because I am preparing for my wedding in early September, and so that I can focus more energy on Mantra, an open-source HTML5 game dev framework that I’m building to make game-jamming with HTML5 tech much more fun and accessible.
The good news is: we’ll be back in the Fall in full force! I have a few game jam concepts floating around and we may even do two jams (of different types) in the Fall to make up for the summer absence. Stay tuned!
]]>On Saturday, July 9th, Bocoup is hosting an HTML5 Game Hack Day. It’s not a game jam (unless you want it to be!) so there’s no particular goal. We’re just getting people together to hack on games and game technology in HTML5. We’ll provide a kick-ass place to work, pizza and soda/coffee/tea, wifi, and some of the best HTML5 game dev folks in Boston.
There will also be opportunity for attendees to do some short show-and-tell over the course of the day in terms of what we’re hacking on.
That’s it. Pretty simple, pretty low-key… pretty awesome.
The event is free, but please register here to attend.
]]>Last Friday, BostInnovation published a post of mine in which I introduce the greater Boston tech community to the concept of game jams in general and Boston Game Jams in particular. It was part of their “Gaming in the Hub” featured series for last week. Here’s a clip:
Game jams can inject new game ideas — in playable form, no less — into the development community and help avoid the stagnation of ideas that can result from local group-think. They also help keep the talent pool fresh as they allow latent game developers find their strengths and passions. What’s more, game jams end up being a great way for developers to meet and get to know one another. The extreme pressure of making an entire game within 48 hours creates a strong sense of camaraderie between jammers.
I also highlight a few BGJ projects that have bloomed into much more (including, of course, Smuggle Truck) and talk about why I run Boston Game Jams.
You can read the full post here: http://bit.ly/ecSaEl
]]>