Veronica Zammitto

The Global Game Jam had a total of 53 locations around the world! From Friday January 30^th to February 1^st we were in the Jam, having a blast. The venue for the Vancouver location was SFU Harbor Center.

In Vancouver, we had a total of 27 participants, one of them actually drove from Seattle to be part of the event. Just to give you a glimpse of the great spirit and motivation that reigned.

At 5:00 pm on Friday the constrains were unveiled:

1) A complete play session has to last 5 minutes or less.

2) The Theme of the game should be: “As long as we have each other, we will never run out of problems”

3) To choose one of the following adjectives to incorporate in the game: thin, evolved, or rotating.

People pitched their ideas, discuss about them and got into groups. Five teams were conformed: Blobboy, Need Artists Inc., One Tonne Punch, Scorched Physics, and Treelings. There were also mentors who were at the Jam during the whole development process, helping with tips and supporting them, such us Mitch Lagran and Dan Taylor.

Saturday went pretty smooth. Everyone was working really hard to get their game.

On Sunday, the effort of 2 days was starting to notice, but always with a great atmosphere. At 3:00 pm, they had to stop working and upload their games to the Global Game Jam website, and then everyone was trying the games, including the judges that arrived.

Doing critiques of the games produced at the Vancouver Game Jam

We closed the event with every team presenting their game on the big screen, telling about how their idea evolved, some of them showing their prototypes as well. Judges gave their feedback, pointing out strength and weaknesses of those creations made in just 48 hours. We gave prizes to every team. Smiles, handshakes, and eagerness of coming next year for more Global Game Jam.

I’m proud of having been part of the organization, happy with the results, and thrill to the human factor of the event local and globally.