OGPC Game Jams

OGPC is excited to announce a series of new events—the OGPC Game Jams! These one-day events provide teams of high-school and middle-school students an opportunity to create a design document and paper prototype of a videogame based on the OGPC annual theme. Working with industry mentors, students will learn the basics of team communication, translating abstract ideas into concrete plans, rapid paper-prototyping of their designs, pitching their projects, and professional networking.

Teams are welcome — but not required — to build on this experience, going on to create their game for the OGPC Main Event. Attendance of a Game Jam is not mandatory for teams planning on attending the Main Event, but there will be limited-edition OGPC Adventure! Achievements available at the Game Jams!

Registration is now closed for the OGPC Game Jams.

There are two Game Jams scheduled for 2012:

  • Portland — March 10, 2012 at Portland State University.
  • Eugene — March 17, 2012 at the University of Oregon

Schedule of Events for the OGPC Game Jam

  • 9:00am - 9:30am — Teams arrive and check in
  • 9:30am - 10:00am — Opening reception
  • 10:00am - 11:30am — Collaborative work on paper prototyping
  • 10:00am - 11:30am — Coaches Training (Century Rooms, 2nd floor)
  • 11:30am - 1:00pm — Lunch and Keynote speakers (Auditorium)
    • Meet and greet with industry pros and colleges (Skylight East, 2nd Floor)
    • Key Note Speaker: Shelby Wills, Senior Producer, PipeWorks
    • Key Note Speaker: Corvus Elrod, Zakelro
  • 1:00pm - 2:00pm — Collaborative Work on Game Design Document
  • 2:00pm - 2:45pm — “Lightning talks” by each team to show off design
  • 2:45pm - 3:00pm — Closing remarks

Preparing for the Event

Preparing for the OGPC Game Jam is easy: just show up! Ideally participants will attend as a team and use the Game Jam to learn more about game design and kickoff their own design process for the OGPC Main Event.

Game Jam is not about programming! You do not need to bring a laptop. You will not be learning Game Maker, Java, C#, or anything related to computer programming. Game programming and software development professionals often use “low-fidelity” techniques in the early stages of design to test and explore ideas before translating into a computer program, and that’s exactly what you’ll be learning at the OGPC Game Jam. Instead of typing on a keyboard you will be sketching on paper, using game bits and action figures, string, Sharpies, and other “real world” tools to explore your game design.

What are these “Lightning Talks”?

To enhance the experience for all of the participants, we would like each team to briefly present their game design and paper prototype to the other attendees. We will use the Lightning Talk format with a 5 minute time limit.

What if I’m not part of a team?

Sign up and join the event! We will group other solo attendees together to form an ad-hoc team or have individuals join other teams for the event.