Global Game Jam and the Missing of the Point

This past weekend a few of us Ball State folk journeyed to Columbus, Ohio to the campus of The Ohio State University. The point of our trek was three-fold: to meet up with an old student, for our mentor of the group to network with a well-known individual within the gaming industry, and to take part in the Global Game Jam.

Game Jam 2012 theme

The Global Game Jam, if you've never heard of it, is a 48 hour event in which teams build a working game, based upon a provided theme. The game may be digital or analog.

The theme this year was Ouroboros. It was a vague enough of a theme that one could spin an idea (pun-bearable!) in many directions. Good choice IGDA!

I wanted to work with people that I didn't know, since, to me, the point of going was to socialize; I could just as easily make a game by myself from the comfort of my own home. Ideas spawned from the group based on the theme, and I gravitated toward a specific idea, which led me to work with people I had traveled with from Muncie. "Oh well," I thought.

However, something occurred near the end of the first night that I felt odd about. People from OSU started mentioning things like, "so and so is going to show up in a bit, and he's awesome at 3D animations." Similar phrases were mentioned 5 or 6 times. This idea popped up a few times throughout the next 24 hours.

This kind of irked me. If you feel this way, in my humble opinion, then you've missed the point of the Jam. The point was to make a game. Not necessarily a good looking, or mechanically "tight" game. Just a simple game. If you feel comfortable enough to enroll in a Jam, then chances are you don't need a lot of help to create a very simple game. And there's nothing wrong with making a somewhat ordinary game. The joy is in the creating, not the creation.

As far as my group's submission, here it is: Heads Are Tails. There is a readme and plenty enough instruction to get the gist of the game on that site, so I won't analyze it in this post (and honestly, it's very, very simple; an analysis wouldn't make sense).

Our group used the skills and tools available to us, and I'm definitely proud of what we were able to accomplish. If we were to sit down again this weekend and hammer out another game, the quality would definitely improve, but our game is an artifact that represents the sum of our talents at that point in time.

Our artist sketched us as we were between expletives

Jamming was a great experience and I look forward to participating again next year, hopefully.

Have friends, will graduate

With a busy semester in my rear view mirror, I'd like to quickly point out something that has been on my mind for a bit.

I was asked a few weeks back to speak in front of a few prospective students and their parents regarding my involvement with Immersive Learning projects at Ball State. I prepared nothing, thinking I'd be speaking in front of maybe 100 people (which of course turned into upwards of 600 people!). One thing I managed to talk about, despite my nerves, was the friendships which I have gleaned from these projects.

I tend to keep small circles of friends; I'd rather they mean a great deal and have fewer of them. The friends I've made within my program have been a great blessing to me. They've been motivators, instigators of growth, and sources of stress release. A silly Youtube video after eight straight hours of work can do wonders.

If I could talk to 2006 Josh, one thing I would tell him would be that everyone feels more or less like you do. It's scary being in an entry level class, thinking that everyone knows how to program at the onset of college. This is obviously and absolutely false. I wish I was able to get over that mental barrier but some lessons take time. Getting close to a few classmates showed me that; not everyone knows what they're doing all of the time. And that's OK!


Making friends absolutely had a huge effect on my college career, and I have the few Immersive Learning projects to thank for that. Not only do they pit students against challenging problems, but they might just coax someone out of their shell, which can make all the difference.