Global game Jam Cape Town hosted by the Computer Science department

The third Global Game Jam (GGJ) kicked off at 5PM local time on Jan 28th, in 44 countries, covering 170 locations. When the dust settled on the 30th, 1500 games had been created.

The GGJ is a 48 hour international game development event - teams have two days to develop and implement a fully functional computer game based on a theme which is only revealed when the event begins. The 2011 theme was 'extinction', which made for some interesting titles! This year, for the first time, Board Games were also included in the event. The Game Jam is not really a competition - although prizes were offered as an incentive at the local event: games are downloaded and assessed by the wider internet community, and settle to a final approval rating/score over time.

The Cape Town leg of event was organized by Patrick Marais of the Computer Science Dept at UCT. The event attracted 37 participants, with 12 video games and 2 board games being produced by the time proceedings closed at 3PM on Sunday 30th January. The participants included a significant contingent of established game developers as well as a number of students from the Computer Science Game Development course. A UCT team secured 3rd place among these pros, with a game called 'Infection', which was generated procedurally i.e. using a purely mathematical description.

The GGJ games can be downloaded and played by anyone with the right software. All the games produced at the local event are available here:

http://www.globalgamejam.org/games/2011?tid[]=3723

[Patrick Marais]