Global Game Jam Details

SUNY Albany will be the host site in Albany for the 1st Annual Global Game Jam, from January 30th through February 1, 2009. Other sites around the world will run game jams with similar rules and limitations, each starting in its own time zone.

What's this game jam thing?
A game jam is a cooperative gathering of game developers to encourage experimentation and innovation – participants come together without a team, without a game idea, and are given a subject/theme to incorporate in their game while meeting new people. At 3 pm on Sunday, games are uploaded to the global site, and local games are reviewed on site.

Facilities
We will have a lecture center for the kickoff video feed and the demos at the end of the jam on Sunday. There will be two computer labs (with 70 computers) in the SUNY Albany science library. Both of these areas are nearby a central food court.

Schedule
Friday:
• 3 pm – people can start arriving, have registration, get familiar with space, mingle
• 4 pm – hall will open
• 5 pm – opening ceremonies, theme announcement, team forming
• 6 pm – planning and making games!
• 11 pm – computer labs close
• 12 pm – campus center closes

Saturday:
• 9 am – computer labs open, campus center opens
• 5 pm – computer labs close
• 12 pm – campus center closes

Sunday:
• 9 am – computer labs open, campus center opens
• 3 pm – game submission deadline
• 3:30 pm – game presentation
• 5 pm – we’re out of there!

Directions & Parking
The Science Library is at the SUNY Albany Main (Uptown) Campus at 1400 Western Ave. Directions to the campus can be found on the SUNY Albany website. You can also download a map with parking information to print out here.

Parking on Friday is at the Visitors Lot - please mention that you are attending the Game Jam.

Parking on Saturday and Sunday is at the Indian East Gold Lot.

See the Parking Map for how to get to these lots.

View Larger Map

Software
Lab computers will be available for use with the following software installed:

Game Maker
Adobe Photoshop, Flash & Illustrator
Microsoft Office: Excel, Powerpoint and Word
Blender
Audacity
GIMP
Microsoft Visual Studio Suite 2005
Sun Java Development Kit (JDK)

For a full list please check the SUNY ITS Website

Cost
Pre-registration is closed. Register on-site for $7. We have a limited number of Global Game Jam T-Shirts and pins available to everyone who pre-registered and the first 18 people who register on site.

Food
The registration fee at the door will go toward food for the duration of the Jam. Some food will be made available to participants.

What to bring
Bring yourself. If you have a computer you want to work on, bring that. USB keys aren't a bad idea either.

What not to bring
Pre-organized teams and pre-designed games. Everyone is encouraged to form teams on Friday after the theme of the game jam has been announced.

Constraints
The rules of the game jam prohibit the use pre-made content (this includes program code, audio, graphics, models, etc.) unless it was publicly available at least a month prior to the game jam. The SUNY labs may also be closed at night (TBD).

Intellectual Property
All Games, Ideas, Art, Code and Concepts made during the Global Game Jam are owned by the members of that team. This includes all aspects of intellectual property, including Patents, Trademarks, Designs and Copyright. In the spirit of a game jam there are often many people helping one another. When appropriate acknowledgements will be made to those parties, all members of the team are held to standard industry practices of collaboration.

All participants of the Global Game Jam will allow their game to be archived on the Global Game Jam website in the form it was submitted at the end of the game jam on February 1, 2009. Participants may ask to have an update of their game posted with notice of version information.

All materials made at the Global Game Jam can be used for demonstration and lecture at conferences, schools or industry venues (example: GDC 2009) with the expressed discretion of the Global Game Jam, the IGDA and IGDA Education SIG.

As an initiative of the IGDA, the Global Game Jam is fun and trying to keep things simple. Rule of thumb is that team are not going to illegally exploit others' IP, and that in turn, everything we create becomes part of the public domain. Participants agree that their participation in the Global Game Jam will hold no one liable for any loss or damage.