It happened in USA, France, Denmark, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, South Africa, Venezuela, Norway, New Zealand, Spain, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Israel, The Netherlands ... and London - England!

"In a Game Jam, participants come together to make video games. Each participant works in a small team on a complete game project over the course of a limited time period, usually over a weekend. With such a small time frame, the games tend to be innovative and experimental.

"The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the first of its kind: a Game Jam that takes place in the same 48 hours all over the world! The Global Game Jam will start at 5:00PM Friday, January 30, 2009 through 5:00PM Sunday, February 1, 2009, (all times local). All participants in the Global Game Jam will be constrained by the same rules and limitations, with each time zone having one distinct constraint."

from GlobalGameJam conceived by IDGA and its Games Education SIG

Deadline: 3pm Sunday 1st February - all games and source code must be uploaded. You may be able to upload a separate enhanced version during the week, if you have time.

Hardware/software: Your choice. We have people coming with a range of expertise. Get in touch if you would like to come but don't have portable equipment - we may be able to help.

Copyright: You retain the copyright, but everything is released on Global Gamejam website under Creative Commons License (to be confirmed). There will be a release form available at the start of the jam, with clear instructions regarding uploading files and space to provide information such as names and roles of team members, platform requirements, copyright notes, install description etc.

Teams: Please spend time getting to know other developers and form a team when you get here - it's a social/networking event. We strongly recommend teams of 3-5 people.

Sleep: You can bring a sleeping bag - there will be (limited) space to crash for a short time, large washroom, no showers sorry.

Publicity: You can Twitter the jam and we plan to stream Sunday Show'n'Tell (3-5pm) on ustream.tv with all the other jams.

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Better Programmer Art by Joel Davis