This jam is now over. It ran from 2019-08-23 23:00:00 to 2019-08-25 23:00:00. View 24 entries

Are you a current or aspiring game developer in Alberta? Are you looking for a way to connect with other developers in our community, learn new skills, or experiment with cool ideas? Join us on August 23rd-25th in Edmonton, Calgary, and Lethbridge for the first ever Alberta Game Jam!

The Alberta Game Jam is Alberta's first and largest province wide game jam event, seeking to help unite and empower developers throughout our province. Whether you're a seasoned developer already working in the industry or a novice looking to get started, game jams are an excellent way to get connected to your peers, flex your creative muscles, and share experiences by making games! If you're new to game development, game jams are also a great way to learn the ins and outs of the process and start building up pieces for your portfolio.

Physical Sites:

If you are participating in this game jam at a physical site, please purchase your $5 at one of the Eventbrite links below. Your $5 reserves you a spot, as well as helps to fund the venue's snack table, pizza on Saturday, and any other costs associated with hosting the event. Each of the current physical venues are wheelchair accessible. (To learn more about the amenities/facilities available at each venue, please visit the Eventbrite pages below).

Calgary (Mount Royal University) | Edmonton (MacEwan University) | Lethbridge (Lethbridge College) | Remote Participation

Don't have a site near you? It's not too late to set up a site of your own! If you are a game developer located in a town or city other than Calgary, Edmonton, or Lethbridge and would like to set up a physical site for you and other developers in your area to participate, please contact our team at abgamejam@gmail.com!

Unable to get to any of the physical sites, but would still like to participate? We have you covered! We have done our best to ensure that the physical venues that we have chosen are accessible to those with physical mobility issues and other disabilities, but we know that there are other factors that may make participating in person difficult or impossible. While we do strongly encourage you to attend in person if you can, if you can't and would like to participate remotely, please join our Discord! The Alberta Game Jam team will do their best to ensure that you are sorted into a team (if that's what you want).

Event Details:

How It Works:

The goal of the Alberta Game Jam is to create a game in 48 hours within a multidisciplinary team according to a super! secret! theme! that will be announced that the beginning of the event. After the theme is revealed, participants will be able to meet and mingle with each other and form teams before starting to work on their game. (Think of it like a hack-a-thon, but focused on game development!) Teams may choose to make digital or board games, so long as it adheres to the theme in some way.

At the end of the 48 hour period, each team presents their game, where they will share their experiences and what they learned throughout the jam.

Alberta Game Jam starts promptly at 5 pm on Friday, August 23rd and ends at 5 pm Sunday, August 25th. Your game must be uploaded to this itch.io page by 5 pm. Presentations start right at 6 pm, and then we can all go home and go to sleep!

Teams:

Attendees may choose to come with a team already made, but in the spirit of encouraging collaboration and experimentation, it is preferred that you form a team at the event once the theme has been announced. Use this opportunity to meet new people and work with someone different!

Team size may not exceed 7 people. Solo teams are allowed, though we encourage you to at least talk to your fellow developers throughout the event!

The Alberta Game Jam is open to people of all disciplines, backgrounds, and levels of experience. Game development would not be possible without programmers, designers, artists, writers, and audio artists, so please do not be discouraged from attending if you don't know how to do everything. There is guaranteed to be someone at the event that can do what you can't (and vice-versa!) for you to team up with. And if you don't know how to do anything, this event is the perfect place to learn!

Why the Dinosaur?

The dinosaur on our logo isn’t just any dinosaur—it’s an Albertosaurus, first discovered in Horseshoe Canyon, Alberta in 1884 by Joseph B. Tyrrell, the namesake of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, Alberta. The Albertosaurus was chosen as our team wanted to choose a symbol that was unique to Alberta but not tied to any particular location in order to best represent our mandate of uniting developers across the province. Besides being named after the province, the Albertosaurus is also featured on the new Alberta driver’s licenses and identification cards. Additionally, it is believed by some paleontologists that the Albertosaurus moved and hunted in packs, which fits with the themes of unity and empowerment driving Alberta Game Jam.

(Plus dinosaurs are just plain cool!)