I thought that i would draw the class' attention to this event that has been running this weekend... The X48 GameCamp at the University of Derby. I have been following this as it has developed over the weekend after latching onto it as it flew by on my blog dashboard of updates from Wonderland. As an event closely relating to the idea of Indie Game Jams and the Global Game Jam discussed in the first session.
I am not sure how i feel about the corporate sponsorship of these sorts of indie events as it seems to fit somewhere between "Cool Hunting" and good publicity.
I think one of the things that is so interesting is the use of web 2.0 technologies to publicise the event and follow its progress (YouTube, twitter, blogging, facebook, Flicker, daytum, Last.FM play lists).
I think one of the things that is so interesting is the use of web 2.0 technologies to publicise the event and follow its progress (YouTube, twitter, blogging, facebook, Flicker, daytum, Last.FM play lists).
(I think we could all learn a little from this approach)
I think that it is also interesting to see the idea of a Jam with XNA rather than Flash or the ipod dev tools seen at a lot of other Jams.
I have just started reading about this when looking on the Wonderland Blog you reccomended, I rearly want to go to this; looks like there will be so much potential in that university when it happens.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that advertising is a bad thing because it gives them money to run it and also shows un-convinced people that these large companys are backing the idea and what could come out of it.
I guess my problem with the corporate sponsorship centres around the origins of Jams. Game Jams were always Indie events set up by enthusiasts and designers outside the capitalist areas of game development. Game Jams were places to experiment with and push the boundries of game development and its developers.
ReplyDeleteThe funding is almost always a good thing because it brings in prizes which brings in talent... (check out this link for a list of the prizes from X48)
http://www.x48gamecamp.com/blog/2009/3/22/sunday-monday-happy-days.html
...but should you need prizes to encourage developers and students to flex their muscles and design something great?
Plus is it has chance to start bringing in restrictions and rules etc.
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