GlobalGameJam – It’s On, We’re There!

I’m totally excited for this weekend. It’s the annual GlobalGameJam where hundreds of places all across the globe all spend 48 hours creating video games for a multitude of platforms.

I love GGJ because it grows organically – each organizer decides to host their Jam site and puts up their own links and does their own Jammer drive resulting in a huge variety of events that all have one thing in common – developers passionate about making games, coming together and seeing what they can hack together in just two short days.

And this year it’s even more exciting for me because Microsoft has sponsored a number of the GGJ sites in the East Coast of the US, and a bunch of us are going to be there. For example, I’m going to be heading over to the Jams at NJIT in Newark, NJ and NYU in downtown Manhattan. And because we love Windows Phone (and secretly I want to encourage as many students to find out how easy it is to develop for the Windows Phone and maybe enter Imagine Cup too), for those specific sites we’re at, we’re going to be coming with actual phones to give away to any teams that want to try their hand at building Windows Phone games on the weekend itself. Cool!

Here’s a list of the sites we’re going to be at – I, and the rest of the team, sincerely hope to see some of you there!

• Atlanta, GA – SCAD
• Baltimore, MD – University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus (UMBC)
• Burlington, VT – Champlain College
• Charlotte, NC – University of North Carolina, Charlotte (UNC-Charlotte)
• Durham, NC – Joystick Labs (pending)
• Newark, NJ – New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)
• New York, NY – NYU
• Orlando, FL – Full Sail University
• Philadelphia, PA – IGDA Office
• Pittsburgh, PA – Carnegie Mellon
• Rochester, NY – Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)
• Rockville, MD – Universities at Shady Grove
• Worcester, MA – Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)