The Global Game Jam is an annual event where teams of programmers, artists and audio engineers unite to create a video game in 48 hours. This year's theme is "Heartbeat". I found out about this event on Twitter and noticed they needed volunteers so I signed up. (Oh, Twitter where would I be without you?)

Vancouver's jam site was at UBC's Life Science Centre. My shift started early Saturday morning though many volunteers have started on Friday and stayed overnight as did many of the jammers.

About 260 participants gathered at UBC this past weekend and that didn't include the volunteers - around 50 of them, as well as multiple mentors and sponsors including Microsoft and Wacom.


Wacon also brought a huge Cintiq for us to play with.

Here is Kimberly Voll showing off her drawing skillz! She is the Vancouver GGJ event coordinator and senior faculty member of the Centre for Digital Media. She was also my prof when I went to UBC few years ago! Small world.

The jammers are hardcore. By Sunday, many looked dead due to lack of sleep. Lots of coffee and energy drinks kept them going until the 3pm submission deadline!
 

It was amazing to see all the games being put together right before our eyes. The participants looked like they had a lot of fun despite the tiredness.



Pizza was the final reward for the jammers. Lots and lots of pizza. Great job jammers! You all deserved it!

You can check out all the games posted on the Global Game Jam website here. Have fun!