molyjam-2012
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Molyjam: Building a game jam for everyone
Double Fine programmer Anna Kipnis hosted a wonderful GDC panel about her time creating "What Would Molydeux," a 2012 game jam inspired by the Peter Molyneux twitter parody, Peter Molydeux. The jam was a rousing success, spanning 32 cities worldwide, with Peter Molyneux himself even showing up for the London event. Rather than trying to encapsulate the whole panel here, I suggest you watch it for yourself.After the panel, Kipnis told me that one of the most remarkable things about Molyjam was that it attracted so many kinds of people. "We really wanted people who had never worked on games to come, because there was such a wide variety of disciplines," she said. Sound composers in particular, she said, were reticent to come and were worried they wouldn't have enough to do. "People die for audio, and what ends up happening actually is that you have one audio guy working on like five different games."
UK student games jam breaks world record for jamming games
A group of UK students broke the world record for the largest games jam, with 329 young developers gathering to make games within 48 hours. Despite what could only be some hardcore sleep deprivation, the jam managed to make 41 games for Windows 8.The event, sponsored by Microsoft and gaming courses provider Train2Game, broke the previous world record of 300. As an added bonus, any games Microsoft deems suitable for release are being published on the Windows Store. [Image credit: Train 2 Game Facebook page]
How Game Design Works / Doesn't Work: A Lesson From the 'What Would Molydeux?' Gamejam
"Actually ... I don't know where I'm going with this."At a 48-hour game jam, where time is more precious than money, a brief lack of direction isn't the disaster it would be at an Activision or an EA. It might even be a good thing, allowing just enough room and respite for that one idea that makes a fragmented game come together.The participants of "What Would Molydeux?", a multi-city design event that derives game concepts from the whimsical, semi-sincere mind of Peter Molyneux's Twitter-bound doppelgänger, have the weekend to turn an inherently silly premise into something innovative and playable. And, you know, to figure out where they're going with this.
Friends 'til the End flies out of 'What Would Molydeux?' 2012
This past weekend game developers all around the globe got together and tried to create games based on the amazing tweets of the Peter Molyneux parody persona, @PeterMolydeux. One of our favorites is Friends 'til the End, a game inspired by this tweet:"You play as a small boy with a remote control helicoptor that is alive and your friend, then you discover a nuclear missle [sic] inside it."In Friends 'til the End, players must simultaneously navigate a small boy and a toy helicopter through treacherous environments. We don't want to spoil what happens when you fail in the game -- check out the video above to see for yourself.The event, dubbed "What Would Molydeux?" concluded yesterday. Friends 'til the End is designed by the folks at Tribute Games, whom you may recall from WizOrb. We really want to play it, so excuse us while we go do that right now!
