The Global Game Jam 2024 is nearly upon us – and there’s still time to sign up for one of the three locations across Scotland…
Most of the jams will run from January 26th-28th.
There are locations in Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow. Three universities – Glasgow Caledonian, Edinburgh Napier and Abertay – are hosting jam teams.
There are options in several of the locations for remote and in-person participation, so designers, developers and creators across the country should be able to join in, without the need to be at the location.
If you’ve not yet taken the plunge into game development, the game jam can be a perfect introduction. Novices and newbies are welcome, alongside more experienced game creators.
The game jam has been created to be inclusive and welcoming to every participant, whatever their experience level – and the output from the event is impressive.
The Global Game Jam is the world’s largest game creation event taking place around the globe boasting tens of thousands of participants (jammers) at hundreds of physical and virtual sites in over one hundred countries around the world.
In January/February 2023, the jam saw 40,000 people at 800 locations in 108 countries create 7,600 games in 48 hours around the theme of Roots! GGJ Consistently maintains a 90% satisfaction rate year over year among participants.
If you’re not familiar with the format, a game jam is similar to a hackathon where people come together for a short period to create games around a theme or topic, normally revealed at the very start of the jam.
The structure of The GGJ is usually that everyone gathers on Friday late afternoon, watches a short video keynote with advice from leading game developers, and then the theme is announced. All jammers worldwide are then challenged to make games based on that same theme, with games to be completed by Sunday afternoon.
The Global Game Jam team say:
The GGJ stirs a global creative buzz in games, while at the same time exploring the process of development, be it programming, iterative design, narrative exploration or artistic expression. It is all condensed into a shortened development cycle. The GGJ encourages people with all kinds of backgrounds to participate and contribute to this global spread of game development and creativity. Jammers are invited to explore new technology tools, trying on new roles in development and testing their skills to do something that requires them to design, develop create, test and make a new game. The GGJ is rooted in the idea that in today’s heavily connected world, we can come together, be creative, share experiences and express ourselves in a multitude of ways using the universal language of video games.
Sign Up Now…
You can find the Global Game Jam 2024 locations in Scotland below. Eligibility, accessibility and facility information is provided for each. If you want to push yourself creatively this year, the GGJ is the perfect way to kick off your adventure in videogames…