The Words of Matthew Nunez: Global Game Jam

Two weeks ago I took part in a world wide event called the Global Game Jam. It's when Game Designers all over the world work with others in teams to create various kinds of games from Board Games to Video Games all based around one theme in 48 hours.

My College does this event as well and I decided to take place in it as a participant. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot about working on a deadline and such. Many of the games that were created were awesome and everyone had fun working the late night hours and idea creating moments. Our theme this year was Extinction and the game had to feature it in some form or way. I wanted to do a board game so I teamed up with a friend who also wanted to do a board game named Yenni Brusco. She and I teamed up and together we made two really great board games.

Please check out her online portfolio website at:
http://yennibrusco.com/index.html

One was about the internet going out in Egypt due to the whole riots and such, the other was about a total world order vs an anarcy group.

If you want to do something like this then here's a few ideas:
1. Find a group of friends who are creative and like games like you
2. Pick a time of year your not going to be really busy.
3. Pick a theme you want your game to be based on
4. Try to make your game finished by a certain time limit from 48 hours to even a month or more if you want
5. Have fun

Doing this will give you guys a unquie experience like I had and the fun that came with it. Our games were hits, especially the Egyptian one.
You can check them out on these websites:
http://www.globalgamejam.org/2011/anarchy-vs-nwo
http://www.globalgamejam.org/2011/internet-extinction-egypt

Here are some pictures of me at the game jam(Yeah I have a big beard, but hey it's Vermont):

This is the most of the area where we worked, under Hauke 101. We had plugs, food, soda, coffee, white boards and more so we can work easier.

That's me presenting my idea. I didn't get anybody to join me and I wasn't convincing enough. I guess everyone wanted to do an electronic game except Yenni so we teamed up and made an effort to do both our ideas together.

This is an example on how many computers one group had and this is just one group out of many. Some of the groups didn't work in Hauke and worked in their dorms, but pretty much everyone but our group had this much tech with them.

Here's another picture with the same idea. By the way, the two guys on the right are two of my teachers. Professor Manley is on the laptop and took part in the jam too while Mr. Ferguson, the other guy, was just helping everyone out

This is Yenni my partner. She's a year older then me and was the brains mostly behind the Egypt game while I was the one behind Anarchy vs NWO. We both helped each other and changed each other' games so I really was glad to work with her. She's a lot of fun and is a great worker.

Here we are working on the pieces for the Egypt game. It took us 2 hours to cut them all and draw the lines for each piece. This was because we didn't have a pair of scissors and we had to use a paper cutter to do it.

Yenni being funny.

Taylor, another game designer, also being funny as well. You need humor and a lot of caffeine to help you get through the late hours.

Here's an overview shot of a protoype version our game Anarchy vs NWO. The board is about half my size and the continents aren't taped in yet. Your going to need a lot colored peices to keep track of everything as well. Also the cards don't need pictures. I just did that for the presentation of the game to the gamers at my school only. The reason why I didn't add the images to the game's document online is I would have to MLA every website I borrowed the images from which was not happening.

Our whiteboard holding our game's mechanics and information. I like making complex games

Sleep....something most got little off as most worked the whole 48 hours. Since ours was done earlier then most we got a few hours of sleep unlike these guys.

Us finally play testing the Egypt game. This was the first one done and the most simplest to do unlike the other which needed more time and work. Our goal was to do two board games, but if we ran out of time we would use this one as our main game.