New England Tech hosts Game Jam

By Kimberley Donoghue
PBN Web Editor
Twitter: @kdonog

WARWICK – The New England Institute of Technology was a host site for the 2012 Global Game Jam Jan. 27 to Jan. 29.

The Game Jam was held at 246 locations worldwide and included 11,000 participants. At NEIT, 37 people competed on eight teams.

This year’s theme was the Ouroboro, an ancient snake symbol; it had to be incorporated in the video game being developed.

NEIT’s eight teams were able to create and publish their games on the Global Game Jam website before the 48-hour deadline.

“This is the third Game Jam event we have held in the past six months, the previous two building up to the Global Game Jam,” said Bill Culbertson, assistant professor of Video Game Design and Development Technology at NEIT.

“We have witnessed a tremendous growth in the participants’ technical skills as well as their time management,” Culbertson said. “These events are great for building confidence in a game design and developer’s ability. The event also promotes team building, a great skill to have in the game industry. Our faculty was really impressed with the quality of the games developed in such a short period of time.”