Morrisville — Morrisville State College will once again serve as a host site for teams of artists, hobbyists, programmers, designers and musicians during the popular Global Game Jam event, which will be held Jan. 29 to 31. Morrisville is one of only a handful of sites in New York state hosting the event, which is a chance for gamers throughout the world to collaborate, explore creativity, tout inventiveness and let their imaginations roam as they create playable video games in under 48 hours.
Morrisville State students, alumni, staff and community members will be among thousands of participants from all over the world taking part in the GGJ, which is recognized as the largest event of its kind in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records. Eight new countries have joined the ranks of countries involved in the massive game development event: Estonia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Nepal, Palestinian Territories, Paraguay, Ukraine and Vietnam.
The event is open for amateurs, professionals, hobbyists and those with a passion for making games. Anyone over the age of 18 can register to participate in the GGJ at Morrisville State. Registration, which is required, is $10 and includes a T-shirt.
The annual event begins on Friday Jan. 29, in Charlton Hall and kicks off with video keynotes and advice from leaders in the game development industry. The jam formally begins after an announcement of the year’s theme, which is kept secret until the last second.
Participants break into teams which will be formed on-site, then spend the next 48 hours brainstorming and designing a new game from scratch without any outside help. All finished GGJ games will be archived onto a Game Jam website for everyone to play.
This is the seventh year the college will be serving as a host site for the international event, now in its eighth year. Some of the games participants at the Morrisville site have created include: “Traps: The Spanish Adventurer” (a journey to prove capability as an adventurer, by collecting all of the gold); “Ex-Extinction” (Sir Captain Rawrington must save his dinosaur ancestors from the incoming asteroid onslaught); and “Flight Team Phoenix” (pilot a phoenix spaceship and eliminate alien enemies).
Last year, 35 participants at the Morrisville site produced five video games, consuming 12 pizzas and 10 cases of soda in the process.
For more information or to register to participate at the Morrisville State Game Jam site, visit morrisville.edu/gamejam, contact Richard Marcoux, at 684.6788 or e-mail him at [email protected].
For more information on the Global Game Jam, including a database of downloadable games, photos and video from the events and more, visit globalgamejam.org.
