Goshen College to serve as site for Global Game Jam on Jan. 26-28

Event: “Goshen College Global Game Jam”
Date and time: Friday, Jan. 26 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday, Jan. 27, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday, Jan. 28, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Location: Goshen College Union Building, rooms 001 and 004
Ages: 18+
Cost: Free, open for up to 25 participants. To register, visit https://globalgamejam.org/2018/jam-sites/goshen-college


Programmers, artists, musicians and storytellers are invited to participate in the 2018 Global Game Jam (GGJ) at Goshen College, the world’s largest game creation event, Jan. 26-28.

The event is free and open for up to 25 participants, and will take placeFriday, Jan. 26 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday, Jan. 27, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday, Jan. 28, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. To register, visit globalgamejam.org/2015/jam-sites/goshen-college. Drinks and snacks will be provided.

Last year more than 36,000 people at 700 sites across 95 countries participated in the global event. The event is now in its tenth year.

The goal of the Global Game Jam is to bring people together and make a video game or non-digital game, such as a board game or card game. Participants rapidly prototype game designs and work within the 48-hour timeframe to fully realize their concept. The brief time span is meant to help encourage creative thinking to result in small but innovative and experimental games.

“It is a weekend of intense learning and using what skills you have to join others to create a digital or desktop game,” said Jeanette Shown, associate professor of computer science and information technology, and organizer of the Goshen location. “If you have any interest at all in creating a game, or contributing to the creation of a game either through music, art, programming, storytelling or designing the game itself, this is an intensive positive experience to learn how to do it while collaborating and experiencing it with teams from around the world.”

Participants work in conjunction with developers in other locations, rallying around a central theme, which is announced at the start of the GGJ. The goal is to generate experimental prototypes that teams can continue to work on after the jam. Many games developed in previous Global Game Jams have become fully realized games.

The GGJ is open source and all projects are protected under a creative commons license. Participants are encouraged to try out new ideas and push themselves creatively.

For more information, contact Jeanette Shown at jlshown@goshen.edu.