Internatll video game weekend kicks off at Waikato

International video game weekend kicks off at Waikato

Waikato University will be the first venue in the world to start the 48-hour international Global Game Jam at the end of this month.

A Game Jam brings people together to create video games. It encourages experimentation and innovation – participants come together without a team, without a game idea, and are given a theme to work with.

All 49 international locations involved in Game Jams around the world kick off at their location at 5pm on Friday January 30 and run until 5pm on Sunday February 1. There are 13 different time zones involved, with New Zealand the first to start. Waikato University is the only New Zealand location for the Game Jam, and it has 30 slots available for the weekend.

Waikato University organiser and computer science senior lecturer Bill Rogers says the weekend is aimed at programmers, designers or game testers at secondary school, tertiary or professional level. However, Mr Rogers plans to run two introductory sessions before the weekend for those who have not worked on games before. Sessions are planned for January 19 and 22 at the university, between 10am and 2pm.

Mr Rogers says Waikato University is excited to be hosting the event in New Zealand. “Waikato has the Number 1 computer science department in this country and it’s fitting that innovative gaming people will do their creating for the international contest here.”

Games will be uploaded to a global site on the Sunday afternoon for judging. Under the rules of the Game Jam, team members retain the intellectual property, but the games will be available in the public domain. They will also be available for demonstration at conferences, lectures and in schools.

People wanting to register for the Hamilton workshops or the Hamilton event itself should visit www.globalgamejam.org.nz. The international site is www.globalgamejam.org/index.html

ENDS

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