Train Jam is an annual game jam that takes place aboard the Amtrak California Zephyr train, which travels from Chicago, Illinois, to Emeryville, California, on the days immediately preceding the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
There is not consistent Internet access aboard the train during the trip, which encourages a sense of community and teamwork amongst the participants. [1] Past participants include prominent members of the indie game development community, such as Rami Ismail and Sean Vanaman. [2] In addition to attracting professional and independent developers, train jam has a "student ambassador" program and has included students throughout every jam. [3]
Train Jam was founded in 2014 by Adriel Wallick, and occurred every year up to 2019 at which point it was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Readers can play past games made at train jam for free on various websites. [4] [5]
The University of Washington is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Roguelike is a subgenre of role-playing computer games traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player character. Most roguelikes are based on a high fantasy narrative, reflecting their influence from tabletop role playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons.
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the designers and programmers responsible for its games as "software artists". EA published numerous games and some productivity software for personal computers, all of which were developed by external individuals or groups until 1987's Skate or Die!. The company shifted toward internal game studios, often through acquisitions, such as Distinctive Software becoming EA Canada in 1991.
The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is a nonprofit professional association whose stated mission is to "support and empower game developers around the world in achieving fulfilling and sustainable careers."
Dublin High School is a four-year high school located in the East San Francisco Bay Area. It is the only currently operating high school in the Dublin Unified School District—as another high school in the city has yet to be constructed and operational—and serves about 3,500 students.
The Washington Huskies are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Washington, located in Seattle. The school competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Pac-12 Conference.
Thatgamecompany, Inc. is an American independent video game development company founded by University of Southern California students Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago in 2006. The company was a developer for Sony Computer Entertainment, contracted to create three downloadable games for the PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network service, and has since secured independent funding. The first of their games is a remake of Chen's award-winning Flash title Flow, with enhanced visuals and sound, added multiplayer modes and compatibility with the PlayStation 3's motion-sensitive controller. The title was released on the PlayStation Store in 2007. The company's second PlayStation 3 game, Flower, was released on the PlayStation Store in 2009, and their third game, Journey, was released in March 2012 on the PlayStation Store. Their fourth game, Sky: Children of the Light, was released in July 2019 on iOS and in April 2020 on Android. Later, it released on the Nintendo Switch in June 2021 and on PlayStation 4 in December 2022.
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UWSMPH) is a professional school for the study of medicine and public health at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It is one of only two medical schools in Wisconsin, along with the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, and the only public one.
An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. Because of their independence and freedom to develop, indie games often focus on innovation, experimental gameplay, and taking risks not usually afforded in AAA games. Indie games tend to be sold through digital distribution channels rather than at retail due to lack of publisher support. The term is synonymous with that of independent music or independent film in those respective mediums.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) is a media franchise of space western role-playing video games created and developed by BioWare, which have seen releases on the original Xbox, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, OS X, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Android. The franchise takes place in the fictional universe of Star Wars by George Lucas. The first title, and subsequent massively multiplayer online role-playing game series, was developed by BioWare while the second was done by Obsidian Entertainment per LucasArts' request. All were published by LucasArts. The video game series is based on an earlier comic book series; the franchise includes a subsequent new comic book series. Both comic series were published by Dark Horse Comics and act as prequels to the video games.
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin. Founded when Wisconsin achieved statehood in 1848, UW–Madison is the official state university of Wisconsin and the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It was the first public university established in Wisconsin and remains the oldest and largest public university in the state. It became a land-grant institution in 1866. The 933-acre (378 ha) main campus, located on the shores of Lake Mendota, includes four National Historic Landmarks. The university also owns and operates the 1,200-acre (486 ha) University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum, located 4 miles (6.4 km) south of the main campus, which is also a National Historic Landmark.
The Global Game Jam™️ (GGJ) is an annual distributed game jam. Inspired by the Nordic Game Jam, and created by Susan Gold, Ian Schreiber, Gorm Lai and Foaad Khosmood, originally developed under the International Game Developers Association Education SIG to bring together the elements of creativity, collaboration and experimentation. At each site, participants gather to develop ideas, form small groups, create new, creative, innovative games, and present them to their peers and the global community, all in a limited time span. As of 2013, GGJ is managed by Global Game Jam Incorporated. Current and past board directors include the founders Elonka Dunin, Lindsay Grace and Zuraida Buter. 2022 staff members are Executive Director Tim Cullings, Director of Operations Charly Harbord, and Senior Director of Communications Tarja Porkka-Kontturi
Ludum Dare is a game jam competition. It was founded by Geoff Howland and was first held in April 2002. It is currently run by Mike Kasprzak, who has been part of the team since the beginning. Participants are required to create a video game that fits within a given theme in two or three days. Participants often release a time-lapse video of the development of their game.
Draymond Jamal Green Sr. is an American professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Green, who plays primarily at the power forward position, is a four-time NBA champion, a four-time NBA All-Star, a two-time member of the All-NBA Team, a seven-time member of the All-Defensive Team and a two-time Olympic gold medalist. In 2017, he won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award and led the league in steals.
A game jam is an event where participants try to make a video game from scratch. Depending on the format, participants might work independently, or in teams. The event duration usually ranges from 24 to 72 hours. Participants are generally programmers, game designers, artists, writers, and others in game development-related fields. While many game jams are run purely as a game-making exercise, some game jams are contests that offer prizes.
The Yogscast, officially registered as Yogscast Limited, is a British entertainment company based in Bristol that primarily produces video gaming-related videos on YouTube and Twitch, and also operates the Yogscast multi-channel network for affiliated content creators. Initially a group of online content creators, the Yogscast began activity in 2008 and formally incorporated as a company in 2011.
Nordic Game Jam is an annual game jam that takes place in Copenhagen, created in 2006 by Gorm Lai and the Danish chapter of the International Game Developers Association in collaboration with Jesper Juul and Henriette Moos. It is one of the biggest videogame-related events in Denmark and one of the largest game jams in the world, with 900 participants as of 2016. Participants are given a theme or series of restrictions at the beginning of the event and are then given around 40 hours to make a game around those. In 2009 it served as the flagship game jam and inspiration for Global Game Jam.
Game Jolt is a social community platform for video games, gamers and content creators. It is available on iOS, Android, on the web and as a desktop app for Windows and Linux. Primarily for Gen Z, users share interactive content through a variety of formats including images, videos, live streams, chat rooms, and virtual events.
The Integration Bee is an annual integral calculus competition pioneered in 1981 by Andy Bernoff, an applied mathematics student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Similar contests are administered each year in many universities and colleges across the United States and in a number of other countries.
Alec Thomas Brown is an American professional basketball player for Indios de Mayagüez (basketball) of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional. He played college basketball at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. Brown was drafted 50th overall in the 2014 NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns, though he never appeared in a game with the team. Brown subsequently played for the NBA G League franchises of the Suns and Chicago Bulls before playing in Europe.