Some Inspiration

The #1 reason to participate in a game jam: http://zenpencils.com/comic/90-ira-glass-advice-for-beginners/

• 300 game mechanics/ideas http://www.squidi.net/three/index.php
• Thousands of free sprites, textures, and models http://opengameart.org/
• Free sounds http://www.freesound.org/
• The recent Ludum Dare games http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/
• Screenshot Saturday: what the indie scene is up to http://screenshotsaturday.com/
• The 2013 One Game a Month challenge http://onegameamonth.com/

Schedule

The INNOVATE 2013 game jam will begin Monday, Jan 21 for the Pro track participants and Friday, Jan 25 for the Hardcore track participants. The schedule is above.  Everyone will finish Sunday, Jan 27th at 5pm ET. Plan to make your game available for everyone to play by the following Tuesday.  The Williams Graphics Lab will be open 1-4pm to showcase the games as well.

The time limits of a jam are intended to keep it fun, light, and creative; without them it might devolve into yet another project for a group of already hard-working people. Everyone is welcome to work on their design or do little prototypes beforehand and to polish afterward, but I recommend really following the spirit of the time limits and not overloading yourself.

A recent article by Christer Kaitila has some advice on your first jam, based on his Ludum Dare exit survey: http://gamedev.tutsplus.com/articles/business-articles/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-a-game-jam/

Machinis Ludo: INNOVATE 2013

Machnis Ludo: INNOVATE 2013 Game Jam

This is the group blog for INNOVATE 2013, an invitation-only game jam organized by Morgan McGuire in January 2013 to begin the Machinis Ludo series of game jams at Williams College. The goals are to foster innovation in game design and technology, and to celebrate camaraderie among developers in the G3D Innovation Engine and codeheart.js community.

Rules:

1. One developer per game.
2. One game per developer.
3. You can use any game engine or support code.
4. The allowed platforms are web, Windows 7, OS X 10.8, iOS 6, and command-line/terminal.
5. You must adhere to one of the following formats:
1. "Pro16" (max. 16 hours): Maximum 1.5 hours/day Monday-Friday, plus up to 8.5 hours total on the weekend, ending by Sunday 5pm.
2. "Hardcore48" (max. 48 hours): Friday 5pm-Sunday 5pm
6. Games must be made available for play by all participants at the conclusion.
1. Publicly release of games is encouraged but not required.
2. Open source games are encouraged but not required.
7. All code must be written during the jam.
1. You can prototype and work on publicly-released demos and support code beforehand.
2. Assets may be created beforehand.

Post screenshots regularly to this blog--the whole point is to inspire each other.  Developers near Williamstown, MA are invited to work in the Graphics Lab.

The Tuesday after the jam we'll exchange and play the games that we created.