About the Dundee Jam

Inspired by various "indie game jam" events and various experimental game design groups around the world, a group of like-minded professional videogame developers based in Scotland felt it'd be fun to organise our own similar event, with the following goals:

• Enjoy making small, simple videogames in a very short space of time
• Promote video game design and development as a pleasurable hobby
• Showcase and promote Scottish creativity and videogame design

Each event involves a group of people getting together for a day and making a bunch of fun little videogames. There is usually a "guiding theme" to serve as a springboard for ideas. The outcome of each event is to be written up on this website.

Questions

Who can attend a Dundee Jam?

Our plan is to eventually make the events open to anyone interested - primarily game developers in the Dundee area (be they professional, semi-professional, or blatantly unprofessional), but also enthusiasts, hobbyists and students. However for the first few events we have decided to keep the number of participants quite small as we test out the process and see how it goes!

Can non-programmers attend?

Definitely! The main goal is to create simple videogames in a short space of time, and although that may sound like it favours programmers, there is plenty of room for other disciplines to get involved such as artists, animators, musicians, and designers. It's really up to the participants what they get out of the event, but here are some suggest for non-programmers:

• Team up with other participants and make a game together
• Act as a "floating team member" getting involved in whichever projects you fancy
• Create your own game design using whatever means you have at your disposal (e..g concept sketches, Flash animation etc)

What can I expect from the event?

A bunch of people all making simple videogames over the course of a day! True, a single day may not sound like much - and it really isn't. So to speed things along a bit we've prepared a simple 2D C++ game engine which participants can use if they want to. Really, you can use with whatever tools, languages and existing assets / source you are happiest with, but naturally if you start with some huge 3D epic that has been in development for years, you may be missing the point of the exercise!

Who owns the videogames?

All creations remain the property of their respective authors. However we do ask everyone for their permission to host their work on this website after the event. Naturally too, the videogames should not infringe anyone else's copyright.