GameJam BostonJune2007 Wrapup

The Winners:

OLPC Award (GDC passes) - SprayPlay (Brian, Eric, and Greg Jordan)

XO Award (Developers' Program XO) - Pong3D (Wade Brainerd)

Sugar Award (T-shirts, game books, and XKCD posters) - Kuku Anakula (Julius Lucks, Adrian DelMaestro, Sera Young)

Congratulations to all those who participated! If you haven't gotten your prizes yet, email us with your address or the best way to convey physical objects to you, and we'll send them over.

The Games

The list of games can be found here: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/GameJam_BostonJune2007_Games

Some comments from the judges:

One parent said Kuku Anakula was "...a great game for 2nd to 3rd graders" - some judges asked for easier math questions, others for harder ones. One judge liked the Labyrinth game so much they returned to play it afterwards. A pair of siblings had a small argument because one got to play it through twice. One judge described 3dPong as "awesome... oh yes, I scored another point!" Pythagoras was described as having the "...best intro of the session" Reversi was so "awesome" and "very absorbing" that it was "only easy to leave because it was a two player game and the game ended." Sprayplay was "really fun" and one young judge said it was the "best game yet." Typeblocker was "addictive" and "hard to stop," and Sort spanned the widest age range, being enjoyed by a 12-year-old judge and a 3.5-year-old judge.

More feedback on games from the young judges is at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/GameJam_BostonJune2007_Feedback - check out what they said about yours.

The Press:

We're in the news! http://wiki.laptop.org/go/GameJam_BostonJune2007_Press

We're also on TV! Alas, it's only broadcast in Needham, but they've agreed to release the Game Jam clip under a Creative Commons license, so I'll be picking up the DVD on Friday and posting it that weekend. If you have access to a TV in Needham at 7:30pmEST this Thursday June 14, flip to Comcast channel 9 and RCN channel 15.

What's next?

-1. Make an account on the wiki http://wiki.laptop.org if you haven't already!

0. Post feedback on the Wiki, both good and bad. We want to learn how to make these Jams better - this was the first OLPC Jam, so thank you for being so patient and helpful with this grand experiment. http://wiki.laptop.org/go/GameJam_BostonJune2007_Feedback

1. Make your game a wikipage if you haven't already - put it under Category:Games so we can find them all together. To make life easier, a template is available on the wiki at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Template:Game (go to the Tetris example on that page and click "edit" to see how to use a wikitemplate).

2. Post your pictures on flickr with the tag "olpcgamejamjune2007" so we can all see them.

3. Think about what you want to do with your game - many kids asked us where they could buy the games on Sunday afternoon, and would love to download and test them at home. If you'd like to finish/package/sugarize and put your games out there as part of the mini Games & Curriculum release on June 25 or the first Content Package release on July 20, put your name on the http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Content_release_cycle wikipage and we'll send you instructions on how to get included.

4. If you want to get/stay more involved in game development for the XO, join the Games mailing list <http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/games> and start posting/taking-up suggestions for things you'd like to see/do. If you'd like to get involved in other aspects of OLPC, let us know and we'll point you towards some resources - the game dev community is one of the most close-knit right now, but other communities (art, music, etc) are springing up as well if you're interested.

Thanks

Finally, a huge thank-you to all the developers, artists, musicians, judges, parents, coordinators, cooks, and volunteers who came out this weekend to help us make the first OLPC Jam a success.

• • • • • • • • • • • LIST OF NAMES, WOEFULLY INCOMPLETE *************

Emily Moscol - Olin liason
Joe McDonald - Olin liason
Rachel Weinstock - Help w/ liability insurance
Caitrin Lynch - recruiting judges
Dee Magnoni - graphics tablet
Susan Johansen - office supplies

Molly Crowther - volunteer (registration)
Nick Hayes - volunteer (networking)
Nick's friend - utensils
Jessi Murray - volunteer (food runner)
Bryce Lee - cook
Yifan Sun - cook
Boris Dieseldorff - cook
James Switzer - cook, coder

Noah - py(thongame) awesomeness
Kent/Kim/Lincoln Quirk - sponsorship, org help
Darius Kazemi - game jam org help
Ben Sawyer - registration, sponsorship, org help
SJ Klein - sanity
Manu, Owen, ??? - XO loan, help
<other OLPC people?>

Panera - food
Peets - food
Dunkin Donuts - food
Starbucks - food
Finagle A Bagel - food