Games Now! Online Jams are a series of online game jams organized by Aalto University Games Now! lecture series. Jams are open for anyone interested to participate. We will kick-off each jam with a two hour talk show on our Twitch-channel: https://www.twitch.tv/gamesnowaaltofi.
The design constraint for each jam is explored during the show by an esteemed game expert. Together with the hosts the visitor will play and present games that demonstrate how the design constraint have been applied in different games. After the jam the submitted games will be played and discussed in a similar talk show with the expert.
Games Now! Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/gamesnowaaltofi
Games Now! itch.io page: https://gamesnowaaltofi.itch.io/
More about the Games Now! at: http://gamesnow.aalto.fi
Upcoming Jams
To be continued!
Past Jams
Games Now! Online Jam #4: Inside a Quantum Computer | April 7-14, 2021.
Our fourth Games Now! Online Jam will be jointly held with Quantum Games course (https://quantumgames.aalto.fi/). The jam is open for everyone! You can join the jam, regardless whether you are enrolled in either of the courses. Quantum Game course is run by Aalto University, Department of Media in collaboration with the Department of Applied Physics — were students build games and playful art projects about quantum computer (or with quantum computer) in multidisciplinary teams.
Schedule:
- Kick-off talk show: April-7 at 14-16 UTC (17-19 Finnish Time) @ https://www.twitch.tv/gamesnowaaltofi
- Submission deadline: April-13 at 14 UTC (17 Finnish Time)@
https://itch.io/jam/games-now-online-jam-4 - Review talk show: April-14 at 14-16 UTC (17-19 Finnish Time) @ https://www.twitch.tv/gamesnowaaltofi
We will have James Wootton, a quantum games expert at IBM Research Zurick as our guest speaker. James’ research focuses on topics that are accessible to newcomers to quantum computing, to make sure that there are lots of useful and interesting topics for everyone to work on. This includes experimenting with what games can do for quantum computers, and what quantum computers can do for games. He has taught courses on quantum computers at the University of Basel, and was one of the founding authors of the Qiskit textbook
Games Now! Online Jam #3: Board Game Ecologies | October 12-18, 2020.
This time we will go analog (or at least hybrid), as the focus of the jam is on board games! The design constraint and theme is “Board Game Ecologies”. What are those, and how can they be used in game design? This will be revealed in the kick-off talk show on our Twitch channel (https://www.twitch.tv/gamesnowaaltofi).
Schedule:
- Kick-off talk show: October 12 at 14.00 UTC (17.00 Finnish time) @ https://www.twitch.tv/gamesnowaaltofi
- Submission deadline: October 18 at 14.00 UTC (17.00 Finnish time)
- Review talk show: October 19 at 14.00 UTC (17.00 Finnish time) @ https://www.twitch.tv/gamesnowaaltofi
We will have two guests: Annika Saarto and Kai Saarto, and we will discuss with them how ecologies are represented in board games. Annika and Kai Saarto share their love for board games through Todellisuuspako -blog (https://todellisuuspako.blogspot.com/), and -podcast (https://soundcloud.com/todellisuuspako), and are also members of the Pelaajien Valinta -awards jury (https://www.pelaajienvalinta.fi/) and regular guests in Lautakunta-podcast (https://www.lautakuntapodcast.fi/).
Dr. Annika Saarto has found the joy of (board) gaming some five years ago. As an expert in Ecology, she is keen in scrutinizing phenomena as systems. This is reflected in the favorite mechanics in board games: building engines, and their sub engines, is the best thing she can imagine. Kai Saarto is a journalist with a lifelong love for board, video, and roleplaying games. He has been a gamer since 80s and especially loves games with good stories and character development.
Submit your game in itch.io: https://itch.io/jam/games-now-online-jam-3
Facebook event for the jam: https://fb.me/e/2saJTDrvY
Games Now! Online Jam #2: Sad Games | May 4-10, 2020
In our second online game jam, we will have as a guest assistant professor Dr. Elisa Mekler from Aalto University, Department of Computer Science. In her work she examines the motivational and emotional processes underlying User Experience, Games and Gamification. She will present us several games dealing with sadness in various ways, and we will be discussing, what kind of design decisions have been used to express this emotion in games.
Games Now! Online Jam #1 | March 23-29, 2020
Our first developer guest is Samuli Jääskeläinen from Varjo! Samuli has been really active game jammer since 2012. He has extensive understanding on the game jam scene and been traveling to many countries participating various jams. We are looking forward to chat with him about game jams in general as well as the design constraint, and games he has picked!
