With Pi Jam coming up this Friday, I sat down with organizer Anna Prein, a fellow 2013 Women in Games Scholarship recipient and current Vancouver Film School student to find out more about the jam, as well as the history of Hat Jam.
So what’s this thing you’re organizing?
It’s called Pi Jam. It’s a 48-hour game jam. It used to be called Hat Jam, VFS Hat Jam, but now we’re doing this with Microsoft so we wanted to change the name.
This past weekend, around 15,00 people gathered around the world for the Global Game Jam with one simple purpose: Create a game in less than 48 hours. This kind of rapid development is the essence of the different game jam events around the world, like Ludum Dare, the Nordic Game Jam, the Toronto Game Jam (aka T.O.Jam) and VFS’s very own 2Jam.
What is a Global Game Jam?
You might think, “Ok, got it — a game jam is something like a game making marathon.” And you’d be right to think that, but you’d also be wrong. Sorry. A game jam is not only a game making marathon — it’s also a great chance to network with industry professionals and celebrate a common interest: game design.
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What is 2Jam? Well, according to VFS Game Design Instructor Chevy Ray Johnston, “2Jam is a two-day rapid game development session. The goal is for each jammer, with a single partner, to create an entire game from scratch in just one weekend!”