{"id":60229,"date":"2015-01-31T10:00:13","date_gmt":"2015-01-31T15:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=60229"},"modified":"2015-01-29T21:20:04","modified_gmt":"2015-01-30T02:20:04","slug":"game-jammers-put-skills-to-work-during-global-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=60229","title":{"rendered":"Game Jammers put Skills to work During Global Event"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_4527\"<\/a>Participants\u00a0at the Morrisville State GGJ site prepare to make their games during this year\u2019s Global Game Jam.\u00a0\u00a0(Photos by Franci Valenzano, Public Relations Associate).<\/em><\/p>\n

(Morrisville, NY \u2013 Jan. 2015) \u00a0There was a common element challenging the seven-member \u201cKThx\u201d team as they ardently worked together to create their video game, \u201cProject: Nightmare.\u201d Each had slept no more than five hours in a 48-hour timeframe.<\/p>\n

But it didn\u2019t diminish their excitement or innovativeness during this year\u2019s Global Game Jam (GGJ) held Jan. 23 to 25 at Morrisville State.<\/p>\n

Morrisville was one of only a handful of sites in New York State to host the event, a chance for gamers throughout the world to collaborate to explore creativity, tout inventiveness and let imaginations roam as they created playable video and board games in the course of one weekend.<\/p>\n

Morrisville State students, alumni, staff and community members formed teams on-site, joining thousands of participants from all over the world taking part in the GGJ, nowrecognized as the largest in the world by the\u00a0Guinness Book of World Records.<\/p>\n

The annual event is for amateurs, professionals, hobbyists and those with a passion for making video and board games.\u00a0All sites worldwide were challenged to make games based on the same theme, \u201cWhat Do We Do Now?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4540\"<\/a>Participants met at the college\u00a0on Friday, then\u00a0spent the next 48 hours brainstorming and designing a new game from scratch without any outside help.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so excited to be a part of this,\u201d said Joe Smith, a Morrisville State student and first-time participant on team \u201cKThx.\u201d \u201cIt was great to share my ideas and to create a game with my team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtney Mooney, an information technology: web development, and network administration dual major, and member of team \u201cKThx,\u201d had a chance to tout her artistic talents in their game, \u201cProject: Nightmare.\u201d Shortly after game jam began, she requested a drawing tablet, two computers, an Ipad, music, food and energy drinks.<\/p>\n

Others brought candy and snacks to help fuel their minds throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n

David Stablein, head of the Morrisville-LaFayette STEP (Science Technology Engineering Program), a partnership with Morrisville State and the LaFayette Central School District, brought a team of eight students to participate in this year\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

Among them was game jam veteran Evan Pelton. \u201cIt was fun working with a team to create a game,\u201d Pelton said about his decision to return. \u201cWe had more programmers this year which helped us create a better quality game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many followed their sheer passion toward \u201cgaming.\u201d \u201cI love this event,\u201d said Dakota Lukasik, of the LaFayette STEP team. \u201cI am always thinking of new ideas to make games based on characters and stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor McDowell, an information technology: application software development senior and member of \u201cTeam Powerpuffs,\u201d realized the importance of getting ample sleep having participated in four previous game jams.<\/p>\n

\u201cSleep makes it easier,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was also easier for me this year because I knew what to expect.\u201d His team created a comedy game video that focused on making your own adventure.<\/p>\n

When it was all said and done, 35 participants at the Morrisville site produced five video games, and consumed 12 pizzas and 10 cases of soda.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was our largest number of participants ever,\u201d said Richard Marcoux, Ph.D., associate professor in the college\u2019s Computer and Information Technology Department, and coordinator of the Morrisville GGJ event. \u201cIt was a very successful jam with many new and innovative games created this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Approximately 25,000 \u201cjammers\u201d overall participated in the GGJ, with nine new countries and territories joining as host sites; Belarus, Cuba, Ecuador, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guernsey and Luxembourg.<\/p>\n

All finished GGJ games get archived onto a Game Jam website for everyone to play.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Participants\u00a0at the Morrisville State GGJ site prepare to make their games during this year\u2019s Global Game Jam.\u00a0\u00a0(Photos by Franci Valenzano, Public Relations Associate). (Morrisville, NY \u2013 Jan. 2015) \u00a0There was a common element challenging the seven-member \u201cKThx\u201d team as they ardently worked together to create their video game, \u201cProject: Nightmare.\u201d Each had slept no more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-fFr","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_4527.jpg?fit=400%2C300&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/60230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}