Game Dev Game Jam Invitation Talk Prep

03/23/15

All right, I need to prepare what I'm going to say in the classes to talk up Game Jam. I have an HDMI cable, and there's a computer in the class, I'm sure, so I might show off the game made during last semester's game jam.

The Script

Hello, I'm Rory Ksionda, and I'm here to talk about an event the UA Game Dev club is hosting this Friday. It's called a Game Jam. It's a 42-hour event, open to all, in which to come, form a team, and make a game according a theme announced at the beginning of the jam.

There is basically only one rule: don't bring an already made game. That's more or less why there's a theme announced at the beginning, but the theme need only be loosely applied, and in many cases is a vague or abstract theme.

No experience necessary, expected, or required to participate in Game Jam. When you RSVP, and I hope you RSVP, it'll even ask for your experience and/or what you want to do, and an option there is "I'm here to learn something!" So, it's completely normal to use the game jam to introduce yourself to anything you're interested in.

Also, food and snacks will be provided at the jam. We usually try and have a breakfast/lunch/dinner sort've available at hours when those meals would be appropriate.

The club has hosted a game jam every semester for a couple years now, I think, and I've gone to the last two. Both have been a blast, and both have been great learning, teaching, and friendship-building experiences for me. The first game jam the theme was flowers and I made a game in python with two other people. Neither had experience in python, and both contributed a lot of working code to the game. We ended up making a kinda tactical RPG where flowers fought rabbits.

Last semester, the theme was "      in Wonderland", and I made a game in javascript with two other people. I had very little experience with javascript. Neither did one of my other team mates. We ended up providing a lot of the code, and I ended discovering I actually really like javascript, and got more interested in web-dev stuff in general.

Here's our game from last semester's game jam. Show Game

There should be a sign-up sheet going around. If you're interested in coming to game jam, please sign up and we'll send you more information, or come and grab a flyer that has the game jam details on it.

Also, if you're interested in general game development stuff, the club has a meeting every Monday at 5:30 p.m. in ECE room 105. We have a meeting tonight, and there'll be two half-hour talks: one about game prototyping in Roblox, and one about javascript game development (that'll be me).

Any quick questions before I let the teacher have his class back?