GameJamOrganization
Recruitment email draft
One Laptop Per Child Game Jam v1.0
June 8-10, 2007 (Fri-Sun)
Olin College, Needham MA
Are you a game developer, artist, musician, coder, or educator? Want to help create some of the first computer games that children in the developing world will see? <YEAH, THIS SECTION NEEDS SOME WORK>
Join us for the inaugural OLPC Game Jam this June and spend a weekend with OLPC's Director of Content SJ Klein, Serious Games Initiative co-founder Ben Sawyer, <IT WOULD BE GREAT TO PUT SOME MORE BIG NAMES HERE> professional game developers, One Laptop Per Child engineers, and teachers from across the country creating open-source games for education in less than 48 hours. All you need to bring is yourselves and a computer; food, materials, high-speed internet, lodging, mentors, and round-the-clock videoconferencing with game developers around the world are all provided - you provide the passion, we'll provide the rest.
From the website, <http://hackronym.com/olpc/gamejam/>:
"The OLPC Game Jam is a game design and programming event designed to encourage (simultaneously) experimentation and innovation in the game industry and kick off development of open-source games for the OLPC platform (the XO). A group of game developers will get together over a three-day period to make as many innovative games as possible for the laptop, which is being distributed to children in developing countries around the world. Our goal is not just some great games and experimentation for the XO Laptop but also to bring the unique constraints and output of this project to next years GDC Experimental Gameplay Workshop. Code will be released on SourceForge under the GNU General Public License so everyone can freely experiment with the source and games."
There are four development tracks focusing on mesh networking, cameras, tablet mode, and education, with prizes for teams in each category ranging from <LIST PRIZES HERE> to <LIST MORE PRIZES HERE>. The grand prize team will recieve an XO laptop along with free admission (and transportation <BEN, CAN WE PAY FOR TRANSPORTATION?> and lodging - an over $2500 value per person!) for all members to the 2008 Game Developer's Conference <http://www.gdconf.com/> in San Fransisco.
The application deadline is May 12 and there are only 100 spots available, so head over to <http://hackronym.com/olpc/gamejam/getinvolved.html> and apply now! There is no application fee; attending the Jam itself costs $50/$100 (tax-deductible) for non-overnight/overnight guests (all materials, food, parking, etc. are included but attendees are responsible for their own transportation) and scholarship are available.
Contact olpcgamejam@hackronym.com with questions or for more information. OLPC Game Jam v1.0 is sponsored by <LIST SPONSORS HERE>.
Press Release Draft
One Laptop Per Child Foundation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mel Chua (or we can put SJ's info here, which is what I put at the end - should be consistent either way)
Tel: 847-970-8484
Email: mel@melchua.com
IN ONE WEEKEND, WORLD'S POOREST CHILDREN GET VIDEOGAMES FOR FREE
One Laptop Per Child Partners With Leading Game Development Companies To Create Free Software During 48-Hour Boston "Game Jam" This June
Imagine a child who has never seen video games before getting their first laptop. Imagine that this is the first - and only - gaming device this child has ever seen; no Playstations, X-boxes, or Game Boys are competing for their attention. Furthermore, imagine this child is surrounded by dozens of friends in exactly the same situation, and that there are hundreds of thousands of children about to join them - new initiates to the gaming world, all using the same platform - and that this platform is a blank slate and completely free to develop on. Now imagine you're a game developer. Wouldn't you like to get your games on that platform?
That's exactly what (yes, I'm writing more here right now -mchua)
About OLPC:
One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is a non-profit organization created to design, manufacture, and distribute laptops that are sufficiently inexpensive to provide every child in the world access to knowledge and modern forms of education. The laptops will be sold to governments and issued to children by schools on a basis of one laptop per child. These machines will be rugged, Linux-based, and so energy efficient that hand-cranking alone will generate sufficient power for operation. Mesh networking will give many machines Internet access from one connection.
OLPC is based on constructionist theories of learning pioneered by Seymour Papert and later Alan Kay, as well as the principles expressed in Nicholas Negroponte's Being Digital. The founding corporate members are Nortel Networks, Google, News Corporation, AMD, Red Hat, Brightstar, Marvell, eBay, Quanta Computer, Chi Mei and 3M.
For more information or to schedule an interview with OLPC developers and Game Jam organizers, contact:
SJ Klein
Director of Content, OLPC
sj@laptop.org
One Laptop Per Child
P.O. Box 425087
Cambridge, MA 02142
U.S.A.
tel: 617-452-5660