At December 1, 2018 I attended my first ever game jam. A game jam according to Wikipedia is aas stated, "A game jam is a hackathon for video games. It is a gathering of people for the purpose of planning, designing, and creating one or more games within a short span of time, usually ranging between 24 and 72 hours, and some even longer." It was called Games for Change Student Challenge. The location was at 30 W 26th St, New York, NY 10010 in Manhattan. The game jam was held from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM. When I arrived at the game jam, I first talked to the receptionist which guided me to the 7th floor where the games jam was held. I signed my name on a piece of paper brought by the second receptionist on the 7th floor. After that I met up with my friends and I talked to them. There were refreshments there like donuts and orange juice. Next everyone in the 7th floor went downstairs to begin the next steps of the event since I was a little late to the event. Once we got into our seats and settled down, the host of the event talked about how all games have certain things to it, how we could invent a modified rock, papers, scissors game, and how we could make a game with a certain topic. The certain topic was talked by a guest speaker at the event and it was about city planning, building, connected cities, and how we could incorporate technology in an ethical and safe manner into architecture. Afterwards we all had to plan our game that we are going to make on a piece of paper. Once we have done that we all had lunch. After lunch my friends and I gathered up and created a game or tried to within 1 hour and 30 minutes. I helped my friend with the game's art while the rest of my friends worked on the code for the game. It was an RPG game that was set in a city where the hero has to defeat enemies and travel across the U.S.A. to save the world from destruction. The hero was a person with a hoodie while the enemies were robots that took over the U.S.A. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to finish the game with a time span of 1 hour and 30 minutes. Some of the teams presented their games but we did not. After the game jam, we headed home. I found the game jam to be fun. The game jam ran really smoothly and efficiently. The least important thing I learned was about the program Scratch that they presented to us since I already knew how to use a similar program from Code.org. The most important thing I learned was that games and people need time management to efficiently complete their games. I find this opportunity as a step towards my career as an aspiring computer programmer and like to thank the staff at Games 4 Change for holding this event. My next step will be to try to study more code as that will bring me one step closer to becoming a computer programmer. I also recommend doing game jams to people and you as the reader because it gives you insight in how games are made and expands your knowledge about the world around you.
Google Maps Location for Games 4 Change Event Held on December 1, 2018:
Website for Games 4 Change Event and other events as well:
Games 4 Change Website:
Code.org Website:
Game Jam Definition:
My Friend's Blogger Website:
Pictures:
The people that isn't me in the photos are mostly my friends. We worked together as a team in building a game together.
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