Gamers and developers from Lethbridge College are collaborating with others during the world’s largest video game creation event.
It’s a gamer’s dream.
For the last twelve years, Global Game Jam has been an event contested around the world. But for the third consecutive year, Lethbridge College has had the privilege of hosting a local event.
The three-day competition taking place this weekend is designed for video game enthusiasts to come together to be creative, share experiences and express themselves through video games. The event gives creators 48 hours to create a playable game based off of a pitch given to the participants.
For second-year multimedia student, Miranda Hubbard, this is her first time participating. She’s excited to experience the intense rush of creating her very own video game while meeting and working with other developers.
“Being able to see how the game is being built from the ground up in just a small amount of time, is going to be like, take this experience, times it by ten and that’s how it will be in industry, so it’s a very valuable learning experience.”
Every year, roughly 90 per cent of Lethbridge Global Game Jam’s participants are students from Lethbridge College, with participants this year coming from multimedia production and the newly introduced virtual and augmented reality certificate program.
Local Game Jam organizer and college instructor, Allyson Cikor, says this is a great opportunity for students to network.
“It’s a huge confidence booster. So to be able to do something like that in such a short amount of time is really quite incredible and it’s a good way to having the students realize that they can actually do this.”
Jammers will have access to the site from 4 p.m. on Friday to 7 p.m. on Sunday; however, the site will be closing between 12-7 a.m. to encourage participants to get some rest.
This event is free to participate in, but registration will be capped at 25 and participants must be 18 years old or older.
The college is expecting 15-20 participants.