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CUNY Games Network

Visit our website at http://games.commons.gc.cuny.edu (or by clicking the Visit Blog link on the left).

We connect educators from every campus and discipline at CUNY who are interested in games, simulations, and other forms of interactive teaching. We seek to facilitate the pedagogical uses of both digital and non-digital games, improve student success, and encourage research and scholarship in the developing field of games-based learning.

  • Interested in hosting a Global Game Jam site in Jan 2014?

    Posted by Maura A. Smale (she/her) on June 27, 2013 at 10:13 pm

    Hi everyone,

    Hope you’re enjoying the summer! We were recently contacted via Twitter by a game developer here in NYC who has participated in the worldwide game design events called the Global Game Jam (more info here: http://globalgamejam.org/faq). It’s essentially a game hackathon — teams get together to create games over a couple of days (I think there are prizes, too). He’s wondering whether any of us at CUNY would be interested in hosting an event for the next Global Game Jam, scheduled to take place January 24-26, 2014.

    Games Network Steering Committee members have been busy with planning the CUNY Games Festival conference for January 17, 2014, and unfortunately won’t have the time to help organize a Global Game Jam. If you’re interested, please let us know and feel free to get in touch with the event’s organizer, Shawn Allen. Below is an excerpt from the email he sent me with some more information about the event and his reasons for contacting us (and his contact info).

    Thanks!
    Best,
    Maura

    —

    The reason why I am reaching out to CUNY is that as a professional in the games industry, even I have always found it hard to find info on such things as Game Jams. When I did, I found that NYU was the only big site to host the event in New York. And while the people who run their game studies program are all really great, there is a notable lack of diversity in those who attend their game jams.

    I participated in the Global Game Jam in 2012, won “Best Overall Game” with a team of 4 others on the only team that wasn’t a primarily white male composition, the stereotypical development team.

    I’m hoping that with a CUNY site that there could be greater encouragement of all types of people from a lot of different backgrounds could all come together to change the face of what a game jam can consist of in New York, one of the most diverse populations in the world (and where I was born and have lived in for close to 31 years).

    Thanks
    -Shawn
    President, CEO & Game Director at NuChallenger
    http://nuchallenger.com

1 reply
    • Maura A. Smale (she/her)
      Participant
      October 10, 2013 at 10:54 am

      Hi everyone, just want to bump this up in folks’ inboxes (since it was posted originally during the sleepy summer). Shawn contacted us again recently and is still very interested in hosting a Global Game Jam at CUNY in January 2014. If you’d like to get in touch with him to help, please email him at [email protected].

      Thanks!
      Best,
      Maura

1 reply

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