40 game developers from Stevens and the surrounding Hudson County area gathered in Morton and worked alongside 80 others in Nebreska and across the United States in the third annual games++ game jam. The event was collaborative, sponsored by Bellevue University’s Game Studies program and Stevens’ Visual Art & Technology program.
Game jams are competitions where participants are tasked with building a game in a very short time frame. Jams can last from anywhere from a week, to 12 hours in the case of games++. Game jams often introduce a secret requirement, to prevent participants from planning their game before the jam starts. While the organizers originally decided to use “cameras,” as their theme, they decided it was too specific. Instead, they chose “Overlay” as the secret theme, because it is “open enough for a wide range of interpretations, but clear enough for people to latch onto immediately” says Stevens professor and event founder, Jeff Thompson.
Games++ is in its third year, originally started by CAL’s Jeff Thompson and Bellevue University’s Alex Myers. Thompson was teaching at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who co-sponsored the event for its first two years before coming to Stevens and bringing Games++ with him.
Games++ drew not only Stevens students, but also high schoolers and graduates. In addition, some developers who couldn’t make it to either physical location of the event created games at home and submitted them online.
The event was sorted into multiple milestones, points where game developers should have produced enough work to keep on track. While the event started at 10:00 a.m. eastern, the first milestone was at noon, when participants should have their initial idea and concept sketches completed. A prototype should be ready at 3:00 p.m. and pizza was served at 6:00 p.m., preceding the 8:00 p.m. due time. From there, the developers had two hours to play each other’s games and vote for awards, from “weirdest” and “best glitch” to “best graphics” and “best multiplayer.”
If you wish to play the games created at games++, keep an eye on their website, www.gamesplusplus.org, which will be updated with links to games and award winners over the following weeks. Students who want to make their own games have a year to practice (and maybe take some CAL courses) before the next games++ game jam.
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