Global Game Jam spawns 1500 games
Over 6500 participants create extinction-themed titles in 48 hour marathon
The 2011 Global Game Jam took place over the weekend, with over 6500 participants creating nearly 1500 games based around the theme of extinction over 48 hours. Teams were based in 170 locations in 44 countries around the world.
The event, which bested last year's as the biggest ever, gives aspiring young developers, coders, audio technicians and artists a opportunity to pitch ideas and concepts to fellow Jammers, building a team on the fly to go on and create a fully fledged game.
This year, a keynote opening the event was given by Keita Takahashi, creator of Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy.
One of those taking part in the Jam was Tipperary Institute, who's Philip Bourke, coordinator for the Games Design and Development course, said "this is as real as it gets - the sandbox nature of these projects allow students to experiment with games design, development and game-play in collaboration with their peers.
The need to quickly and efficiently produce the code, art and audio assets for fun games in a fantastic way to develop innovation skills."
The GGJ has been running since 2008, and has grown every year since its founding. A full list of this year's finished projects is available at the Global Game Jam website.
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Dan Pearson
Dan Pearson joined Eurogamer in 2006 before moving over to GamesIndustry in 2010. He covers all areas of the business and spends much of the rest of his time shouting at his cat and killing dwarves in poorly constructed fortresses.
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