Game Jam

What is the Game Jam?

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.

The first Game Jam will be run at Olin College in Needham, MA from June 8-10, 2007. Information at the event can be found at http://hackronym.com/olpc/gamejam.

View the rest of the teaser comic here! New panels will be added as the event draws closer.

Schedule

("official events" marked in bold but feel free to add your own - classrooms, blackboards, projectors, etc. are always available along with oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, other basic engineering equipment - hopefully we won't be using the impact tester though!Mchua 14:25, 3 June 2007 (EDT))

Friday:

• 5-7pm - check-in, set-up computers, learn about developing for the XO
• 6:30pm - pygame tutorial (noah)
• 7-7:30pm - introductions, kickoff, begin jamming
  • round of introductions with the infamous barcamp cat-timer (mel)
  • quick intro to the OLPC project (sj)
• 7:30-9:30pm - dinner available

Saturday:

• 9-10am - breakfast available
• noon-2pm - lunch available
• 12:30-1:15 - midway checkin; short updates from teams on progress, and a great chance to ask for help or extra hands.
• 2pm - pygame recap / python lesson (noah)
• 6:30-8pm - dinner available
• 13:00-14:00 - intro/discussion to OLPC project (sj - move this to whenever is good for you)

Sunday:

• 9-10am - breakfast available
• noon-2pm - lunch available
• 3:30-5pm - final presentations, judging, and wrap-up
• 5:30pm - check-out

Introduce yourselves!

Team Name

• Members & contact
• What you're planning to do at the Jam
• What do you need? (an artist? a writer? a teacher for feedback? music?)
• What can you give? (pygame advice? graphics tablet loans?)

The Jordan Bros.

• Brian Jordan (bjordan at wesleyan(edu)), Eric Jordan (ewjordan at gmail(com)), Greg Jordan
• What you're planning to do at the Jam
  • Make a game like those we played and loved when we were kids
• What do you need?
  • 2d sprite artist
• What can you give? (pygame advice? graphics tablet loans?)
  • Music / sound effects recording
  • Physics help - contact Eric (email above)

Team Kuku

• Julius Lucks (lucks at fas(harvard(edu))), Adrian DelMaestro (agdelma at (physics(harvard(edu)))), Sera Young (sly3 at cornell(edu))
• What you're planning to do at the Jam
  • We are making a Number Munchers clone called Kuku Anakula for the XO
• What do you need? (an artist? a writer? a teacher for feedback? music?)
  • Our main objective for the jam is to figure out how to set up the game so that we can develop on our own machines, and have it run right away on the XO (for example, how to handle the XO resolution, etc.)
  • We are also making a quiz engine that can take teacher quiz content and use it for questions and answers for the game. Anyone interested in using something like this should contact us so we can work on it together!
• What can you give?
  • Python help
  • Some sweet Swahili words

Team Moonset

• Max Stafford, Gabriel Welch, Chris Barrett -(mstafford,gwelch,cbarrett) at moonsetstudios(com)
• What you're planning to do at the Jam
  • We are going to write some quick games in Adobe Flash to see what the environment is like.
  • See how far we can stretch Gnash and what it will and will not support from AS 2.0
  • Create games that will consume XML documents so teachers can feed games questions and answers
• What do you need? (an artist? a writer? a teacher for feedback? music?)
  • Any artwork that people want to loan us would be greatly appreciated as all three of us are programmers.
• What can you give? (pygame advice? graphics tablet loans?)
  • Any assistance others may need with flash or perhaps flash interfaces if there is some way to incorporate them in Python.

Team Noname

• David Ludwig (dludwig at pobox dot com)
• What you're planning to do at the Jam
  • I'm thinking of coding a board game of some variety.
• What do you need? (an artist? a writer? a teacher for feedback? music?)
  • artwork.
• What can you give? (pygame advice? graphics tablet loans?)
  • I can provide advice on pygame.

Team Orbus GameWorks

• Jeff Ward (jeff at orbusgameworks dot com)
• What you're planning to do at the Jam
  • Programming something? MAybe something with mesh networking or possibly just something random.
• What do you need? (an artist? a writer? a teacher for feedback? music?)
  • Much like everyone else, I'd like artwork.
• What can you give? (pygame advice? graphics tablet loans?)
  • I can provide a sunny disposition and some programming knowledge, though I can't guarantee how useful that knowledge might be.

Planned projects and suggestions

• Kuku Anakula ("Hungry Chicken") - Zanzibari Number Munchers clone (Team Kuku)
• Poblano - Python clone of the board game Abalone (Team VKL)
• add your ideas here!
  • How about something mixing the mesh with tag-like games? Or mixing chess (hex-boards, etc) with movement rules for the 'pieces' (the other players) potentially 'evolving' into other pieces as the player remains untagged. Penalties for being tagged, could involve some 'untagging' mechanism which involves solving a puzzle or other activities that free the player... --Xavi 01:06, 3 June 2007 (EDT)
  • Programming games? Much like Robo Rally or something similar, using mesh networking, it could be pretty nifty. (JeffW)

  classification games. What kind of image is this? What kind of music? &c; and integration with system tags...

Ride coordination

Post here if you need or can give a ride, or want to travel with others. Olin is in Needham, ~45 minutes from Cambridge by car, and ~1 hour by commuter rail and foot.

to/from the airport

Sj talk - could use a ride from Cambridge early on Friday

to/from Kendall Square

Friday

Coderanger -- coming from Kendall Friday afternoon, back that evening.

Mel talk - will be busing in early Friday morning, company welcome (7am #71 to #59 and walking to Olin, arrival ~9am)

Ywwg talk - driving there after work, leaving around 4:15 (I may be a little late)

Sat/Sunday

...?

other

DavidL - I'll be driving in from Marlborough each day, and can provide rides to and from there. E-mail dludwig at pobox dot com if you're interested.