Summer STL Game Jam 2011 – Day 1

I think I’m starting to get the hang of these Game Jam things. Today went super smoothly, and I actually had over an hour to just chill and mingle before the Jam began. Of course, that’s probably because Elonka Dunin and the rest of the Simutronics crew have been working their butts off to make sure all of the pieces are in place for a great weekend.

On the way to the GameJam I had to stop by the offices of local game developer Riot Games to pick up some swag they were offering to sponsor the event. I called Elonka to see if she needed anything and she let me know that there was a “crisis” involving mouse pads (or rather, a lack of them). The tables they had been setting up for the event weren’t registering pointers. She had called Micro Center to see if they had 50 mouse pads and wanted to sponsor the event by providing them, but they hadn’t gotten back to her, so we figured we’d have to buy them ourselves.

When I got to Riot they handed me two huge boxes containing a ridiculous number of TShirts, hats, lanyards, and League of Legends character skin unlock cards. We seriously have more swag than people and I’d say that’s a good thing.

On my way out, I called Elonka to see if there had been any updates on Operation Mouse Pad. Micro Center had gotten back to her and they were willing to offer us some sort of discount. When I arrived I spoke with manager David Story, and as he counted up 50 mouse pads he said, “I can mark them down to, oh, I don’t know 10 cents.” Then, as we walked up front he said, “why don’t we just make them free.” It was a very cool thing to do, and now I know where I’m buying my next computer!

With my sponsored goods in hand I made my way to Simutronics’ offices to help out with whatever last-minute things needed to be done. I haven’t been to Simutronics’ office since they moved to their new location, so stepping inside was kind of overwhelming. The space is totally open and huge, with super tall ceilings, brightly colored pillows adorning cushioned seating near the edges, white board walls all over, and a big, open conference room smack-dab in the middle of everything. All that, and a dog named Clancy.

There’s no doubt that they’re making something fun there.

I asked Elonka if she needed help, but it looked like they had everything covered. We walked around and put mouse pads on all of the tables, then I made a final pass at the presentation I had thrown together to get things started. While I did this, people started arriving, mingling, Rock Band came out, and a party emerged from nowhere.

Then 5:30 hit and it became time to really get down.

I explained the format of the event for new people to get things going, then we listened to a fabulous keynote speech (stolen from the Global Game Jam 2011) by game design legend Brenda Brathwaite.

Next, David Whatley, co-founder of Simutronics, spoke for a bit about the history of the St. Louis game development scene. This talk was inspiring for several reasons. Game Development in St. Louis has been going on for a long time. Simutronics has been here for 25 years, and around the same time they were getting started, John W. Ratcliff (who was sitting right there in the front row!) was developing one of Electronic Arts’ first games in the same city.

Over time the St. Louis gamedev scene has grown and shrunk, but right now, with three Game Jams in the span of a year, each one bigger than the last, there’s an interest that hasn’t ever been matched in the 25+ years that game development has been happening in St. Louis. I’m super proud to be a part of it.

When David wrapped up, Elonka announced the theme:

Twice Upon a Time.

I didn’t know the theme ahead of time, so this was a surprise to me. I was a little worried when I heard it, fearing every game would end up being samey, but when we split off into groups and began working, it became clear that there were plenty of different, totally crazy ideas that could come out of it.

Ideas mentioned during brainstorming included everything from Lesbian Princesses, to Winnie the Poop, to a character named “Twice” that rolls around on a clock.

After the craziness settled down, we all split into groups and began working. Tomorrow I’ll report back on the games that are being made, but I think there ended up being about 10 or 11 groups ranging from 3 to 8 people.

At around 8:30PM David Whatley announced that Pizza on Friday night would be on him. After his awesome talk I don’t think he owed us anything, but it’s certainly awesome that he was willing to buy us dinner too. So HUGE thanks to David for that!

Most-everyone hung out until well after 10:00 PM, then went home to get ready for the 12-hour crunch that is Game Jam Saturday.

This was sort of a dry post, but it’s impossible to do justice to how hilarious the night was, so I guess I just went into this post without even trying. My big takeaway from today was that St. Louis is right on the edge of becoming the best city in the Midwest for game developers. It’ll take a bit of a push to get us there, but the talent is here, and with all of our awesome sponsors and all of the awesome people at this Game Jam, the heart couldn’t be more apparent.

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