Happy Earth Day,
We hope everyone is doing what they can to help our planet stay healthy! Here is a list of ten actions provided by the UN: https://www.un.org/en/actnow/ten-actions
What ideas do you have for helping the planet? What are you doing in your life?
Regards,
The Climate Jam Team
This year's theme is: Change the Story
"Change the story” as this year’s Climate Game Jam theme means we need to show that we can (and must) end the age of fossil fuels, and that our lives will be so much better because of it. We need today’s best storytellers to immerse players in narratives of the future, showing struggles, resilience and successes of climate action.
The scientific facts about global warming have been known for decades. But due to the bad actions of industry PR firms, the public was confused about even the basics. Even today some remain confused or hold conspiratorial beliefs about the realities of fossil-fuel-driven global warming. So part of “changing the story” is assuring that the scientific realities are conveyed clearly and authentically.
On the other hand, many environmental messages come across as “gloom and doom,” in which the problems are described but paths towards solutions are less evident. Some climate change narratives quickly fall into "The Last of Us”-style apocalypses. Although future floods, droughts, and heat extremes will certainly be more intense in coming decades, their effects on people are never inevitable. Planning at the local, national and international scales can prevent many human impacts. In what ways can you imagine how changes in housing, energy, food, and transportation systems could protect the most people?
Climate justice has proven to be an effective frame at changing the narrative. Burdens of fossil fuel use have so often fallen on indigenous communities, communities of color and other marginalized groups. Who instead benefits from continued reliance on dirty energy sources?
Climate justice activists present visions of a world in which pollution is not in anyone’s backyard, where humans and nature are no longer commodified, and where today’s extractive, polluting economy is instead replaced with a regenerative one. Can games incorporate these ideals? Aesthetics such as Afrofuturism and solarpunk could help to shape vibrant visions of a just climate future within games.
We’re at a critical juncture for climate action. New heat extremes are being set every month, yet there’s still more carbon pollution being released than ever before. Change is inevitable, but justice is not. It’s time to take control of the narrative to help us envision and realize a better future.
Hi, there. I'm Parker with IndieCade. We're having a flash submissions sale (ends this Thursday) and are reaching out to game jams that ended after our regular submissions for this year closed. If you think your jammers might be interested in submitting their games I can provide more details. No worries if not. (I didn't see another way to contact you.) https://www.indiecade.com/submissions
To simplify the teambuilding process we have a Looking for Group / Looking for Group Member spreadsheet available now! Please do not alter other people's entries. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1e9u3LFqnAYrtVtRQuakbqkzvpaTVVzgthp9R2wf-KfY/edit?usp=sharing
Artist Statment from the Devs:
Our team wanted to make a game based on our hidden heroine, a team members sister, Cassandra. Casandra has struggled with anxiety, ADHD and Autism her entire life but overcame her adversity through climbing and our team found that extremely inspiring and touching. This is why our team created Inspiration Climb based on our heroine Cassandra Xavier; Thank you and we hope you enjoy your climb!
- Team Banana Berry
Hi there! We had a glitch on our side of the jam and lost the "Artistic Statement" field. It's back in place so please resubmit this game or at least add your artistic statement as a comment. I believe to resubmit you'll need to delete your submission first. Sorry for the inconvenience.
If you are still looking for a team, we encourage you to post your details on our #jam-team-making channel on the IndieCade Discord server and browse the posts from the other jammers.
If you'd like some extra help finding a team, or are open to adding another member to your existing team, please reply to the Team Making Assistance post in the #jam-team-making channel and we will try to assemble a team with you, although it's ultimately up to you who you jam with.
If you need help making a team but are not able to join Discord for whatever reason, please reply to this post!
As a reminder, here are the steps to joining our Discord community:
Definitely check out our Discord server for teammaking.
Definitely check out our Discord server for teammaking.
We would like to invite you to take part in an online research study related to the Hidden Heroes Game Jam which will take approximately 60 minutes of your time. The purpose of this research is to study the game jam itself, as well as the process of creation based on non-fictional stories.
If you decide to take part in this study, we will ask you to participate in an online Zoom interview session. You will then be asked to fill out an online survey and submit your game for our research team to run a content analysis research.
Upon completion you will receive a $20 Amazon gift card as a thank you from our team. Please note participating in this study is completely voluntary and you may quit at any time.
Follow this link to sign up: https://form.jotform.com/230525008664048
What the heck is a “game jam”?
A game jam is when a group of people work on games around a particular theme or idea for a concentrated time period. The games produced are usually prototypes—which means a rough draft of a working game—which can be refined further afterward. The idea is to get your hands dirty and learn by doing!
What is Hidden Heroes?
The goal of the Hidden Heroes Jam is to encourage intergenerational collaboration by having younger creators help translate the stories, experience and wisdom of older adults into games! In the process, we want to empower older adults to become game creators, and to expand their representation in games.
What is a Hidden Hero?
One of the most unique and beautiful aspects of humanity is our ability to share wisdom through generations – passing down knowledge, stories, histories to those younger than ourselves. This gift of wisdom can come from a wide pool of people too: parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, family and older friends, mentors, teachers, even someone from your neighborhood – those who have struggled and can now share their lessons, those who have persisted against hardships, those who have lived lives full of adventures, both vast and cozy. These are hidden heroes. People whose journeys shape our own.
Do I need prior experience in game design to join the game jam?
No prior experience is necessary! Hidden Heroes is designed to encourage intergenerational collaboration. If you have a younger relative or friend who’s into games, ask them to join your team! There are plenty of easy-to-use game-creation tools to choose from. You could even make a game with Minecraft!
Does it have to be a digital game?
You can create any type of game you like, digital or otherwise—a board game, a card game, even a tabletop roleplaying game
Do I need to know how to program?
You can collaborate with a team that includes a programmer, and even if there are no programmers on your team, there are lots of different easy-to-use tools that you can use. Examples include Minecraft, Roblox, RPG-Maker, and Gamemaker.
What are some examples of the types of games that might be produced?
A handful of game developers have created games based on the stories and lives of older family members. The model for Hidden Heroes is Brukel, created by jam co-organizer Bob De Schutter with his grandmother about her experiences in Belgium under German occupation during WWII. Similar and related games include BORDERS, by Macua, based on the designer’s parents’ stories of crossing the border from Mexico to the United States; and Spectre, by USC’s Vaguely Spectacular Team, explores the memory of a 73 year old man. Other games with related themes include Old Man’s Journey,
For younger game makers: What if I don’t know any “Hidden Heroes”?
That’s why they're hidden! It might take a little detective work to find the right person. Look at the game jam as an opportunity to get to know someone you admire better. It might be a parent, an aunt, or a grandparent. Perhaps you have family members you don’t get to see very much, either across your own country or overseas. It could also be your favorite teacher, a mentor, even a boss who had a big influence on you, perhaps a neighbor or family friend you’ve always looked up to. Use the Hidden Heroes Game Jam as an opportunity to reach out and connect with an older adult in your life.
For older adults: How do I find a partner to work with?
A good place to start is your own family. Maybe you play games with your kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews (both adults and children!). Imagine how cool it would be to ask them to make a game with you! Do you have younger family members or friends you don’t get to see very often? Reach out and use this as an excuse to connect!
Why?
A couple of reasons. The larger entertainment industry—film, TV even popular music—have caught up with the idea that stories for and about older adults are cool, and older adults who are in their prime are making groundbreaking and award-winning work in all these media. The game industry has still not hurdled the ageism barrier, despite the fact that adults over 50 are the largest growing market for its products. The goal of Hidden Heroes is threefold: 1) To empower older adults to tell their stories through games; 2) To encourage people to engage with games across generations; 3) To expand representation of older adults in games, both as subjects and creators.
Who?
The Hidden Heroes Game Jam is a collaboration between IndieCade, the International Festival of Independent Games, and Northeastern University’s “Games for Life” initiative, and AARP Games. The goal of this wider initiative is to study and create games for the over fifty gamer, including expanding our knowledge of the benefits of games, understanding play preferences, and advocating for greater accessibility and inclusiveness in the mainstream industry.
Perhaps the most obvious way to do a hidden hero game is to create a documentary or simulation game about your hidden hero, and while that is certainly a good option, there are many other ways to do a hidden heroes game as well!
Here are three tips towards making a great Hidden Heroes game:
Analyze your inspiration - The first question to ask yourself is what inspired you to pick your hidden hero? What aspects of their personal story and wisdom do you want to form into a game? You will want to ensure that your narrative is engaging and will make sense to an outsider. What game mechanics will communicate your hidden heroe's wisdom interactively? It is a good idea to start with analyzing your inspiration.
Any mechanic goes - While this game jam lends itself easily to a documentary game with a lot of narrative - think That Dragon, Cancer, This War of Mine or Brukel - your game does not have to be all about its narrative. Narrative-heavy games are very welcome, but you can design any kind of game you want for this! As long as your game relates meaningfully to your hidden hero, you are doing it correctly. For example, is your hidden hero a skater? You could make a skateboarding game to share their experiences., Is your hidden hero an artist? Why not create a game that embraces their creative process. Maybe your hidden hero's life is full of overcoming perceptual challenges – a puzzle game could fit! In a way, if Tony Hawk was not famous, or if Paper Please’s protagonist was real, Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Paper's Please could both qualify as Hidden Heroes games.
Involve your hero (optional, but highly recommended) - Participants are encouraged to interview their hidden hero and record the footage, or audio, of them doing so. Previous projects have shown that players respond strongly to games with authentic voice and video, so maybe you can use those elements in your game? Alternatively, participants are welcome to bring the person that inspires them along (in person or remotely) to collaborate on the project.
Here are three questions that could help guide this conversation:
Actually I found it, you can use this link to add your game now: https://itch.io/jam/16722/add-game/765475?token=ROg6DY9KsOsq28O1yNOmHQOUk
The wording of the license basically allows IndieCade to demo the game at their festivals but not profit off of them or resell them. This is necessary since the jam is attached to a group (IndieCade) that also runs a festival/expo and plans to show/demo some of the games created during the jam at the festival to help promote what we are doing with game jams and the works of the creators who participated.
Thank you all for taking part and working so hard on your games. All of the organizers have been really impressed and inspired by what we have seen, and we are looking forward to exploring your work. We have no doubt that the results are not only going to be great games, but that they will also contribute meaningfully to how we are all experiencing the pandemic and its effects.
Below are a few clarifications and adjustments to the schedule.
1) It has come to our attention that the requirement to turn in a 30-90 second gameplay video with your submission was not as clear as it could be. Since this is such a stressful and important topic and time, we have decided to add 24 hours and extend the final submission deadline for Jamming the Curve to Friday, October 2, at 11:59 PM Pacific Time.
2) We will be celebrating the completion of the jam and announcing next steps on Friday, October 2nd from 11:00-11:30 AM Pacific Time (note this is just before the final deadline at 11:59 pm Pacific Time ) on the IndieCade Twitch Channel: https://www.twitch.tv/indiecade.
3) Make sure to Save-the-Date and time for the announcement of the five first-round $1,000 cash winners. This will take place during the IndieCade Festival, on Friday, October 23rd at 10:00 AM Pacific Time, on the IndieCade Twitch Channel: https://www.twitch.tv/indiecade.
Don’t hesitate to reach out on our discord if you have any questions or thoughts to share. You can use @jam-organizer or just post a question in the #jtc-ask-an-organizer channel and we will respond as quickly as possible.
Good luck and stay well!!
The Jamming the Curve Organizing Team
Here are the judges for Jamming the Curve
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRRXJ6X14ZF0bTn_AvMPPNinhaHAbQRniEuH...
Don't forget to join the Discord and go to the #jtc-ask-a-mentor channel to ask questions of all of the great mentors available to you throughout the jam as you are working on your games and thinking about how to translate current research into the COVID-19 outbreak can be translated and passed on through game play mechanics.
And check out this excellent playlist of videos put together by the participating mentors to give you some valuable information and inspiration for your creation.
Finally got an answer:
"This was intended - we wanted the player to increase their risk of infection anytime they broke social distancing regardless if the NPC is actually infected or not since the player (like in real life) likely does not know the other person's status. The "player" tag in this case is applied to each NPC in the game, so it can trigger properly. We did debate this internally, but felt that this was the best way to force players to be alert about their position in the store and take social distancing seriously."
https://youtu.be/ix7Ek95abzUHere are some tutorial videos for using the simulation engine created by Georgia Tech, use of this engine is optional for the jam.
Simulation Engine Unity Tutorial: https://youtu.be/ix7Ek95abzU
Simulation Engine HTML Tutorial: https://youtu.be/RnYCeEYbCKk
Hello Jamming the Curve participants! We are just two days away from the start of the jam and we will be kicking things off at 11 AM Pacific/2 PM Eastern (US) on Tuesday September 15 on the Discord server with presentations from IndieCade, LabX by the National Academy of Sciences, Georgia Tech, the CDC and more to get you prepared for the jam.
This will be followed by a pitch session where you will get a chance to pitch your idea to everyone in attendance and solicit for help with finishing your idea. You will get a short time to give a high level overview of your idea, "It is an infinite runner in space..." for example and then say what your area of expertise is and what types of people you would need to finish your idea, "I am a programmer and need artists" for example.
We will gather in the Jamming-The-Curve voice channel. The intro will also be streamed to the IndieCade Twitch channel and will be available to watch later for anyone who is unable to join the live opening.
Here is a tentative schedule of the event: (all times are US Eastern Daylight time)
2:00pm - 2:10pm Welcome - IndieCade
2:10pm - 2:20pm Intro to Simulation Engine - Systems/Stories - Georgia Tech
2:20pm - 2:30pm CDC Intro
2:30pm - 2:40pm NAS Intro/Rules/Prizes/Judging/Eligibility - LabX
2:40pm - 2:50pm Mentor video
2:50pm - 3:00pm Pitch rules/setup/Themes reminder - Games For Our Future
3:00pm - 4:00pm Pitches/team forming/brainstorming
You can sign up for the pitch session here, it will be first come first served but we can accommodate requests to go earlier if you have other commitments.
There are suggested themes:
Themes: The following themes should help guide—though not limit—your creations:
Infection
Vaccine
Inequity
Misinformation
Policy
We'll have full rules and prize eligibility posted before the jam starts on Tuesday.
On behalf of IndieCade and the Games for the Future Team we are so delighted that you are joining us for this meaningful Jam!
We wanted to share a few details with you….
We are hanging out on Discord – https://discord.gg/Kxy2E5N - easy way to ask questions, chat, whatever. We have #looking-for-group channel where you can meet others who are working on the jam, and many other channels dedicated to helping you have the best experience possible.
We have some times for Q-and-A’s and chats on Zoom. Join us from 3 – 5pm Pacific each day where one of the jam organizers will be available to answer any questions you have:
https://zoom.us/j/96922750224?pwd=Q3BxdFNNNW5lSWUvckdMaDVyZWVBZz09
Meeting ID: 969 2275 0224
If you haven’t seen, we have a wonderful Keynote and Mentor video’s posted for inspiration. https://www.indiecade.com/climate-jam/mentors/
If you have any screenshots, work you are doing or anything you are posting on social media tag us #ClimateJam @indiecade so we can repost! Also post in the #show-and-tell channel on Discord.
Interested in play testing? And/or joining a showcase at the end of the jam? Just let us know on Discord and we will post some options.
We are planning to do a Twitch stream following the jam on the IndieCade Twitch channel featuring all of the games made at the jam, If you would like your game to be a part of the final presentation please create a video of 3 minutes or less including gameplay footage/narration/stories about the process of creating the game, whatever you feel you want to share about the game, your team and your experience and include the video in your itch.io submission or a link to it on YouTube. Your video should include the game name, team name (if you have one) and any identifying information about your team members that you wish to include (names, roles, etc.). We will give you a warning in advance of the stream going live so you can watch and promote it to your friends and followers.
Following the jam, we will be giving Acknowledgments, Awards, and some prize packages - including original nature photography, media promotion, inclusion at IndieCade, and contributions to offset Carbon Emissions in your studio or your own name !
Grand Jury’s Choice
Positive Impact
Most adventurous/ innovative
Best reflects the idea of discovery/explore (inspired by our friends at Niantic)
As well as honorable mention awards in art, design, sound and more …
Want to learn more https://itch.io/jam/indiecade-climate-jam or send us an email to jam@indiecade.com
Haven’t joined yet? Plenty of time to still join!! You are still most welcome!!!
We look forward to seeing your creative and meaningful work!
Your friends at IndieCade and Games for the Future.
