Game Jam Boston June 2007/Registration

Costs & Scholarships

The registration fee for accepted attendees is $50 for non-overnight guests and $100 for overnight guests, payable upon arrival. It includes all meals from Friday dinner to Sunday lunch (vegetarian options will be provided) and activities as well as lodging (linens and towels provided) for overnight guests.

How to Apply

In order to facilitate things we're asking that all participants submit an intention to participate. Your intent to participate should be emailed to olpcgamejam[at]hackronym.com by 11:59pm EST on May 20. There is no application fee. Scholarships are available.

You or your team must be capable of producing something playable during the Jam. We will have some spot artists and sound techs available but ideally teams of 2-5 individuals would be best. If you are looking for a team, check out the wiki Talk Page. We will be doing a nominal evaluation of applicants skills to ensure that each participant/team is capable enough to produce work. Applicants will be notified of their status by May 21.

There is no maximum team size, but note that the average team size for a Game Jam tends to be between 1-3 people because of the tight schedule constraints. The information to send in is as follows:

1. Team name
2. Team leader & email
3. Name of additional team members and email for each
4. If any team members are coming from outside of New England where are they coming from?
5. Which area of interest team will compete in (see About)
6. Basic summary of team member skills such as programming skills
7. Please let us know the main language/technology you intend to use for your game (Python/Pygame, Flash/Gnash recommended)
8. For each participant please include any special dietary notes if applicable.
9. For each team member that wants to stay overnight in Olin College facilities please indicate so and indicate gender.
10. Please provide a few words about why you are interested in participating.

Scholarships

Scholarships are available to accepted attendees who demonstrate financial need; contact us at olpcgamejam (at) hackronym.com for more information. In addition, the following scholarships are available.

Cognitoy Student Scholarship

From a discussion between Lincoln and Kent Quirk on IRC:

[2:52pm]  Why does the Game Jam cost so much? 
I feel like that is going to be a big disincentive to come.
[2:53pm] Yeah, sigh. That's certainly true for students.
[2:54pm] There may be sponsorships -- if people are interested 
but find it too much, send ME an email, or SJ.
[2:55pm] Basically, apply, but through one of us.
[2:55pm] right.
[2:55pm] I think instead of someone sponsoring the $50 (or 
$100 overnight?) it would be good to waive the fee for students
[2:56pm] s/fee/\"donation\"
[2:56pm] required donation?
[2:56pm] heh
[2:57pm] "Overnight" there means you want a dorm room to sleep in
[2:57pm] oic
[2:57pm] if you stay up all night working it's just $50?
[2:57pm] that's confusing
[2:58pm] Think so...hence my question about whether it will be 
permitted to stay up all night working.
[2:58pm] I did the BarCamp at MIT a few weeks back, but MIT wouldn't 
let anyone stay in the building after midnight.

Kent: I feel pretty strongly that $50 is too much for students. My company, CogniToy, is offering to sponsor up to 20 scholarships for students to reduce the cost per student participant to $20 (for a total of $30 * 20 = $600 from CogniToy). When they take the food into account, that should be cheap enough for anyone, I hope. So I'd like you to put that up on the page as an offer -- the first 20 students to apply get it.

So if you want to take advantage of the CogniToy scholarship, note this on your application somewhere - as Kent said, first-come first-served.

Information for specific types of participants

For Game Development Programmers

We are looking for approximately 55-65 professional or open-source game developers with solid programming experience to participate. Familiarity with open source, the Python programming language, and the Pygame library (on top of the SDL graphics engine) is helpful, but not required. Resources to learn about these things will be posted shortly (or post your own here!) You can form a team with other developers/artists/educators, or go for a solo project. Knowledge of English is extremely helpful, but not required; we would love to have at least one non-English-speaking team.

For Game Developers (Art/Sound/Writing/Design/Marketing/etc.)

We are looking for approximately 10-15 visual, graphic, and sound artists as well as writers, level designers, marketers, and other non-programmer members of the professional or open-source game development communities. You can form a team with other developers/artists/educators, or opt to be a "freelance" resource providing services to some subset of teams at the conference.

For Educators

We are looking for approximately 10-15 educators (K-12 + college) with an interest in games in education to come and work with teams and serve as resources for the educational aspect of the games developed. Familiarity with computers and programming is a plus, but by no means required. You can form a team with other developers/artists/educators or opt to be a "freelance" resource providing services to some subset of teams at the conference; write details of how you propose to participate in your application.

Student Pages

We are looking for 4-7 volunteer pages for the conference. In addition to running errands as needed (setting up rooms, configuring computers, etc.) pages can propose to serve in other capacities; for instance, as floating beta testers, freelance sound mixers, or "documentarians" for teams (helping to whip code into a readable state so it can be used and extended beyond the jam). Propose your own role in your application. There is no registration fee for student pages, but all pages are required to stay overnight at the conference (food and lodging will be provided). Programming experience is extremely helpful, but not required. Both undergraduate and graduate students are eligible and encouraged to apply. When filling out the application, put "Student Page" as your team name.

I don't fit into a category, but still want to get involved

If you have an idea for how you can participate in the Game Jam but do not fall into any of the above categories, please let us know what you're thinking! Professors, journalists, electrical and mechanical engineers (particularly communications engineers), pygame experts, computer scientists, physicists, psychologists, translators... if you think you've got something to share, we'd like to hear it.