Recent years have witnessed a rise in Game Jams - organized events to create playable prototypes in a very short time frame. Game Jams offer a unique and quick way to prototype games. Beyond that, we believe Game Jams can also be seen as a design research method, situated in the research-through-design tradition, to create knowledge in a fast-paced, collaborative environment. The goal of this Game Jam is thus twofold: first, participants will use the Game Jam approach to investigate a research question; second, participants can, through actual practice, identify advantages and disadvantages of Game Jams as a research method. Hereby the Game Jam workshop provides a unique opportunity for HCI practitioners and researchers to gain experience in applying game-oriented methods for research.
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This paper introduces the design and results of an applied game jam integrated in a game design and development curriculum, which took place February 2016 at HKU University of the Arts Utrecht in the Netherlands. The game jam followed a four-phased structure over the course of four days. Forty-five participants shared their demographics, baseline competency, attitude towards game jams, and learning expectations in a pre-jam questionnaire. In a post-jam questionnaire they assessed their collaboration and learning outcomes. Results are generally positive, although some measures of collaboration constructs were unreliable. Nevertheless, a game jam is in principal a format worthy of introduction into formal game design and development education. Several implications and next steps are discussed.
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This paper introduces the design and results of an applied game jam integrated in a game design and development curriculum, which took place February 2016 at HKU University of the Arts Utrecht in the Netherlands. The game jam followed a four-phased structure over the course of four days. Forty-five participants shared their demographics, baseline competency, attitude towards game jams, and learning expectations in a pre-jam questionnaire. In a post-jam questionnaire they assessed their collaboration and learning outcomes. Results are generally positive, although some measures of collaboration constructs were unreliable. Nevertheless, a game jam is in principal a format worthy of introduction into formal game design and development education. Several implications and next steps are discussed.
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What obstacles for game designers arise from the tension between gathering data from citizens and addressing a non-digital but spatially defined audience? This question arose during the Games for Cities game jam held on the 22nd and 23rd of march at the Designhuis in Eindhoven. A collaboration between Games for Cities, Het Nieuwe Instituut through the DATAstudio, the Municipality of Eindhoven, and the Design Academy of Eindhoven offered three groups of design specialists, inhabitants, researchers, and others that would take on a design challenge offered by the municipality.
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How can city games staged in public spaces activate citizens around the theme of the circular economy? That was the central question explored in the Games for Cities training school and game jam that took place October 10-14 in Amsterdam. The event was organized as part of the Games for Cities project, in close cooperation with the Play & Civic Media research group at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and the EU COST Action TU 1306 Cyberparks.
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How do you design useful games for a neighborhood that houses about 170 different nationalities? This question shaped The Inclusive City Game Jam held on the 23rd and 24th of November 2016 in the Stadstuin Klopvaart in the Utrecht neighborhood of Overvecht. Briefed by the municipality of Utrecht, specifically the department in charge of Overvecht and its local initiatives, three teams of two game designers (Adam van Heerden & Genevieve Korte, Ekim Tan & Nina Hälker, and Gabriele Ferri & Txell Blanco Diaz) set out to design games uniquely fitted to the needs and strengths of the Utrecht neighborhood of Overvecht. Ultimately the three teams had two days to design something that would benefit Overvecht and could be deployed by the municipality as a useful, and self running, tool for citizens to use to their benefit.
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This post will deal with The Inclusive City Game Talk Show held on the 23rd of November 2016 at Wijk & Co. in Utrecht Overvecht. Like the preceding event in Amsterdam, the talk show was moderated by Utrecht University’s Michiel de Lange and it brought together local and national experts (such as municipal workers or representatives of local initiatives) and game designers. Unlike the previous event, the focus was on localizing the more general background of creating city games for newcomers in the environment of Overvecht. The talk show took place during the game jam of Games for Cities as well, thus the evening functioned as a dialogue with local experts, an initial presentation of game ideas and a chance to comment on their design. Sketching the general background were Michelle Provoost and Nina Hälker. Finally, Ekim Tan was present to discuss the game jam game design process. Due to the more specific localization of a neighborhood (instead of the whole of Amsterdam) the focus of this talk show was on how games can be used to approach an influx of newcomers in a specific neighborhood.
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The study used a research-through-design approach and organized game jams as a method to examine game design processes, with the aim to investigate how the diverse identities of designers affect and inspire their game designs. During the Game [4Diversity] Jams we hypothesised that homogeneity in groups may lead to a single-minded message in their games, and diversity in groups may result in games that allow more freedom for players to create their own personal interpretation(s) of the game's content and mechanics. The results of this study suggest that a narrow theme and diverse team composition may assist designers in creating novel games. As such, designers can find diverse gameplay and content from additional specificity in the game jam's organisation.
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How can games improve the social ties and living conditions of unaddressed audiences in Eindhoven? In a city that is increasingly relying on technology to connect to its citizens, how can those not participating in the tech-craze be reached? This particular topic shaped the talk show held during the Data Studio and Games for Cities Game Jam on the 22nd of March at the Designhuis in Eindhoven. Unlike the previous talk shows in Amsterdam and Utrecht this was more of a briefing informing the parameters of the subsequent game jam. Nevertheless, this briefing saw the clash of data deserts, preconceptions, and game parameters, resulting in new insights into games for cities.
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