The game jam movement:disruption, performance and artwork

This paper explores the current conventions and intentions of the game jam - contemporary events that encourage the rapid, collaborative creation of game design prototypes. Game jams are often renowned for their capacity to encourage creativity and the development of alternative, innovative game designs. However, there is a growing necessity for game jams to continue to challenge traditional development practices through evolving new formats and perspectives to maintain the game jam as a disruptive, refreshing aspect of game development culture. As in other creative jam style events, a game jam is not only a process but also, an outcome. Through a discussion of the literature this paper establishes a theoretical basis with which to analyse game jams as disruptive, performative processes that result in original creative artefacts. In support of this, case study analysis of Development Cultures: a series of workshops that centred on innovation and new forms of practice through play, chance, and experimentation, is presented. The findings indicate that game jams can be considered as processes that inspire creativity within a community and that the resulting performances can be considered as a form of creative artefact, thus parallels can be drawn between game jams and performative and interactive art

Game Jam [4Research]

International audienceRecent years have witnessed a rise in Game Jams - organized events to create playable prototypes in avery short time frame. Game Jams offer a unique and quick way to prototype games. Beyond that, we believe Game Jams can also be seen as a design research method, situated in the research-through-design tradition, to create knowledge in a fast-paced, collaborative environment. The goal of this Game Jam is thus twofold: first, participants will use the Game Jam approach to investigate a research question; second, participants can, through actual practice, identify advantages and disadvantages of Game Jams as a research method. Hereby the Game Jam workshop provides a unique opportunity for HCI practitioners and researchers to gain experience in applying gameoriented methods for research

Video Game Development in a Rush: A Survey of the Global Game Jam Participants

Video game development is a complex endeavor, often involving complex software, large organizations, and aggressive release deadlines. Several studies have reported that periods of "crunch time" are prevalent in the video game industry, but there are few studies on the effects of time pressure. We conducted a survey with participants of the Global Game Jam (GGJ), a 48-hour hackathon. Based on 198 responses, the results suggest that: (1) iterative brainstorming is the most popular method for conceptualizing initial requirements; (2) continuous integration, minimum viable product, scope management, version control, and stand-up meetings are frequently applied development practices; (3) regular communication, internal playtesting, and dynamic and proactive planning are the most common quality assurance activities; and (4) familiarity with agile development has a weak correlation with perception of success in GGJ. We conclude that GGJ teams rely on ad hoc approaches to development and face-to-face communication, and recommend some complementary practices with limited overhead. Furthermore, as our findings are similar to recommendations for software startups, we posit that game jams and the startup scene share contextual similarities. Finally, we discuss the drawbacks of systemic "crunch time" and argue that game jam organizers are in a good position to problematize the phenomenon.Comment: Accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Game

Ola de la Vida:a social play game

Ola de la Vida (ODLV) is a three-player cooperative game which was produced over the course of 48 hours within Global Game Jam in January 2017, at the Abertay University Jam Site.The Game is a playful intervention (an objects or events which seek to bring people together through play) that aims to invite players to form temporary relationships with their co-players through physical contact, collaboration and coaching during play in a co-located context (i.e. where all players are present in the same play space). The game also seeks to expand the play experience beyond the three players to the wider audience by inviting spectatorship through play as performance.The game was designed by Mona Bozdog, Lynn Parker, Danny Parker, and Alex Pass. Since its inception, it has undergone significant development to enhance its usability (through tutorials) and its features to enhance the development of a community of play, including the introduction of clear player scores and high scores for the game. Lynn Parker contributed to the design of physical interactions within the game, the enhancement of usability through tutorials and scores and the creation of digital art for the game in partnership with Alex Pass.Ola De La Vida as a practice as research work offers design insight into use of spectatorship to create a temporary community around a game and to enhance the facilitation of discussion between active players, previous players, spectators, and semi-spectators. The work builds on the varying levels of participation in play, proposing semi-spectatorship: where players are active in a game but have a critical distance afforded to them by the design of the game which offers them and their co-players (where appropriate) potential benefits in play

Two Decades of Game Jams

In less than a year's time, March 2022 will mark the twentieth anniversary of the first documented game jam, the Indie Game Jam, which took place in Oakland, California in 2002. Initially, game jams were widely seen as frivolous activities. Since then, they have taken the world by storm. Game jams have not only become part of the day-to-day process of many game developers, but jams are also used for activist purposes, for learning and teaching, as part of the experience economy, for making commercial prototypes that gamers can vote on, and more. Beyond surveying game jams and the relevant published scientific literature from the last two decades, this paper has several additional contributions. It builds a history of game jams, and proposes two different taxonomies of game jams - a historical and a categorical. In addition, it discusses the definition of game jam and identifies the most active research areas within the game jam community such as the interplay and development with local communities, the study and analysis of game jammers and organisers, and works that bring a critical look on game jams

Evaluation of the game development process of a location-based mobile game

There is a growing interest of government bodies and NGOs in using (serious) video games in awareness campaigns. Until now, however, little was known on how to set up such a campaign so as to effectively cater to the needs of different stakeholders including the target audience. Hence designing, developing and translating a game for educational purposes whilst balancing between fun and learning is a complex process, this paper aims to evaluate this by presenting a methodological framework for involving stakeholders in the design and development of a game-based awareness campaign based on a user-centered software design methodology and assesses its effectiveness in a concrete use case: the development of the location-based mobile game City Jam. The goal was to develop a game-based road safety campaign to confront adolescents with road traffic situations with the aim to positively influence road safety attitude and behavior. Mobile technologies offer new opportunities to embed digital game based learning by in different contexts. Given the nature of the road safety campaign, a location-based game format was chosen, aiming to facilitate learning by means of an extended three-way interaction (human interaction, game and context). Different user-centered design methods were deployed throughout several phases of the game development process: In phase one (the opportunity identification) a literature review was performed to investigate relevant fields for the game’s goal. In phase two (the game concept development) expert interviews and a focus groups were conducted with relevant stakeholders and in phase three (the game concept design) co-design sessions and a focus group resulted in a game design document. In phase four (game development and testing) the beta version of City jam was developed and tested in an iterative field testing design and resulted in the final game. Results obtained throughout the game development process provided us the opportunity to evaluate several major aspects. Firstly the impact of stakeholder involvement on the different phases of the design process and the final product resulted in a game that was tailored to the preferences and needs of the target group. Secondly translating the game concept into practice, such as game elements, proposed educational game elements, were evaluated based on the usability, playability principles and social and technological aspects. Benefits and challenges of user-centered design methods are discussed and how budget constraints and differing desired outcomes of different stakeholders challenge but also enrich the process

Introducing: The Game Jam License

Since their inception at the Indie Game Jam1 in 2002, a significant part of game jams has been knowledge sharing and showcasing ideas and work to peers. While various licensing mechanisms have been used for game jams throughout the years, there has never been a licence uniquely designed for artifacts created during a game jam. In this paper, we present to the community the Game Jam License (GJL) which is designed to facilitate that sharing and knowledge transfer, while making sure the original creators retain commercial rights. The Global Game Jam2, since 2009, strives to formalise sharing in a similar manner, by having jammers upload and license their creations under Creative Commons3 Non Commercial Share Alike 3.0 free license. However, the CC family of licenses is not well suited for software. CC is not compatible with most other licenses, and introduces a legal grey area with the division between commercial and non-commercial use. Moreover, open source licences like GPL are well suited for source code, but not for art and design content. Instead the GJL presented in this paper, aims to uphold the original ideas of game jams (sharing and knowledge transfer), while still allowing the original team to hold on to all rights to their creation, without any of the deficiencies of the CC family of licenses

PENGARUH BERMAIN VIDEO GAME TIPE FIRST PERSON SHOOTER TERHADAP WAKTU REAKSI YANG DIUKUR DENGAN RULER DROP TEST

Latar belakang: Bermain video game merupakan kegiatan rekreasi yang paling populer. Video game tipe first person shooter menuntut pemainnya untuk berkonsentrasi, berpikir, dan bereaksi cepat sehingga memerlukan koordinasi visual dan motorik yang baik. Waktu reaksi merupakan parameter fisiologis untuk mengevaluasi kemampuan koordinasi visual dan motorik. Tujuan: Mengetahui pengaruh bermain video game tipe first person shooter terhadap waktu reaksi. Metode: Penelitian menggunakan metode eksperimental murni. Sampel penelitian adalah mahasiswa Fakultas Kedokteran Undip (n=36) yang diukur waktu reaksinya menggunakan ruler drop test sebelum dan sesudah bermain video game selama 30 menit, 1 jam, dan 2 jam. Uji yang digunakan untuk menganalisis data waktu reaksi tiap kelompok dianalisis menggunakan uji T berpasangan. Sedangkan data perubahan waktu reaksi antarkelompok dianalisis dengan menggunakan One Way ANOVA dilanjutkan dengan post hoc Tukey. Hasil:Ditemukan rerata penurunan waktu reaksi subjek penelitian yang bermain video game tipe first person shooter dengan durasi 30 menit adalah 17,33±14,18 milisekon dengan p=0,006. Sedangkan untuk durasi 1 jam ditemukan rerata penurunan waktu reaksi 30,88±13,06 milisekon dengan p=<0,001. Ditemukan perbedaan bermakna waktu reaksi subjek penelitian antara yang bermain video game tipe simulasi dan first person shooter selama 30 menit (p<0,001) dan antara subjek penelitian yang bermain tipe first person shooter selama 1 dan 2 jam.(p<0,001). Kesimpulan: Terdapat pengaruh bermakna antara bermain video game tipe first person shooter selama 30 menit dan 1 jam terhadap penurunan waktu reaksi. Kata kunci: Video Game, First Person Shooter, waktu reaks

Using Sentiment Analysis to track reaction to the Global Game Jam Theme published in Proceedings of the International Conference on Game Jams, Hackathons, and Game Creation Events

In this paper, we examine the Global Game Jam Theme and the reaction of the 'jammers' to the release. The Theme is one of the main drivers for creative aspect of the Game Jam, it sets the tone of the games that are developed at the Jam. This paper introduces an experiment which uses 'sentiment analysis' to gauge the positive or negative reaction to the theme over the last 7 years of the Global Game Jam. The results of this study show that the 2012 theme had the the highest sentiment. Finally, we suggest that the 'sentiment analysis' or 'context analysis' could be used to gather data sets for other studies such as development practices