What is The Game Creators Space?

The Game Creators Space, or GCS, is a Game Development Club and Workplace focused on building Community, Experience, and Great Games! We've been active in our community as a student club based at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton, and are excited to host our third Game Jam! We welcome participants and members from NAIT, Edmonton, Alberta, and around the world and are committed to helping our members succeed as game developers after graduation. 

What is a Game Jam?

A game jam is an event where people get together to make games! Each game is made from scratch and is inspired by the theme, which is announced right at the launch of the game jam. Since each game jam has a time frame, games can be in various states of completion when they are submitted: and that's okay! Games are also not limited to video games - board games, card games, and even games like tag can all be a part of the jam, so long as you're willing to share what you've made via printable instructions!

Game jams are great tools for building skills, learning how to work as a team, and making something to put into a portfolio. In many cases, games that are made in game jams (whether completed for the jam or not) become fully-fledged games after the event!

The Game Creators Space Game Jam

Our game jams are scheduled to run about one month long, instead the common jam structure to run as a 48-hour event. This allows members to go at their own pace, as many are post-secondary students and are already working on lots of homework projects, as well as give an opportunity to invest more time into projects and produce awesome results! We encourage those participating to prepare a timeline of milestones from conception to completion and avoid procrastination as much as possible. 

Showcase Event

With our GCS Jams, we host a Showcase ceremony to celebrate completion of projects and to enjoy food and drinks provided by NAIT! We host our members in a large theatre at NAIT, and members are invited to present their work to friends, family, and our community. All members participating are qualified to attend and present at our Showcase event. If you cannot attend you can stream the event live at our twitch account at twitch.tv/gamecreatorsspace. You can prepare additional materials ahead of time to enhance your presentation. 

Theme

"From Dusk Til' Dawn"

Challenges

• "The Kit and Caboodle": Create a game that features a new art form you haven't tried using before (cutscenes, 2D/ 3D animations, styles of art, text-based adventures, etc)
• "The Kitchen Sink...": Use at least three recorded sounds from kitchen equipment to add to the game.
•  "Mozart 2.0": Include music to your game which works well to compliment the scene it's in.

Rules

• A single entry per team - choose one person to submit the game.
  • We encourage every member to have an itch.io account, so they can vote, and add to the community board!
• At least one member of your team must make it to Game Show-off Day (Date and time to be announced)
  • GCS Jam 04 is open to all students and alumni of Albertan schools. Guests are allowed to participate so long as they have not been placed in bad standing with any of the Alberta Game Dev Student Special Interest Group - which includes GCS, GADEC, The Games Den, GDC(UofC) and LDGA. For more information, or if you have any questions, message us!

• You must have the proper rights for all content used in submissions, regardless of submission medium
• All entries will be submitted in build (compiled) and source code (non-complied) form, where applicable. 
• You may use any tools, engines, or libraries to create your project
  • Code, art, and other materials must be made or procured during the event
  • You ARE allowed to use project templates, HOWEVER, all pre-made templates must be linked and shared with the submission
  • Paid assets ARE allowed, BUT please remove the paid asset from the source code file IF you do not have the rights to distribute!