The ninth annual Global Game Jam is officially under way! The event, which consistently smashes its own records for participation, is expected to bring together over 40,000 programmers, animators, artists, audio technicians, designers and musicians tasked with creating a video game from scratch... all in just 48 hours.
It's kind of like a hackathon, expect that it's focused on game development.
Bringing together that many people under one roof would be chaos; instead, the jam plays out at more than 700 satellite locations across 95 countries.
Working in small teams, participants are tasked with building out a game based on a common theme that isn't revealed until right before the clock starts. All teams then work on the project for the next 48 hours straight. Once the deadline has been reached, participants get the chance to check out everyone else's creations.
The Global Game Jam is all about having fun, making new friends and collaborating with others and thus, isn't viewed as a competition. The only prizes are the games that everyone makes. Pretty cool, right?
The teams that make each game hold all of the IP rights, the non-profit says, but it reserves the right to use the games for demonstration purposes, etc. What's more, all games fall under this Creative Commons license.
Those interested in checking it out can do so via the Global Game Jam Twitch stream. Here's to hoping we get some really cool games out of this year's jam!