The "Official" Press ReleaseThe Love Jam is a 24-hour game jam devoted to positivity, inclusivity, diversity, and the awareness of systemic issues. I'm coming to you as a student representing MEGA, the University of Southern California's association of Student Developers. USC is not only the top-ranked game design school in North America, but it's also one of the most diverse: progressive games like Thralled, Journey, and Social Clues have emerged from our students and faculty, and this year's Freshman class for game design majors is majority female – an unheard-of balance in any games industry-focused program.
With such a student makeup, MEGA feels strongly that it's not only important to denounce the ugliness of the past 3 months, but also to set an example of what games and game culture can be. This event is partially a reaction against GamerGate and its associated nastiness, but what we're far more interested in doing is enabling developers all around the world to stretch their muscles and take a crack at making inclusive, socially-positive games to improve the state of our culture.
The Nitty-Gritty:- The Love Jam is a 24-hour development event, starting on November 14th at 5:00 PST, and ending on November 15th at 5:30 PST.
- Participation in the Love Jam is open to literally anyone on the face of the planet.
- A local instance of the event is being held in Los Angeles on the USC campus, but the main hub for projects and discussion is the web, respectively on
http://LoveJam2014.tumblr.com/ , and on the #LoveJam2014 Twitter hashtag.
- We're doing the Love Jam to spread hope. In a time when it's easy to feel bleak, hopeless, and cynical, we hope that the Love Jam can spread hope, warmth, and love to those who need it, and shine a light in dark times.
- We have the support of great people. Tracy Fullerton, the director of USC Games, and Richard Lemarchand, the former lead designer at Naughty Dog, have both come out to support the Love Jam. We also have some great keynote speakers lined up for our kickoff this Friday, including creative technologist Margaret Moser, IndieCade director Sam Roberts, and independent game designer, journalist, and zinester Aquma.
This is a public-facing, non-location specific game jam, which means that anyone can participate remotely, much like a Ludum Dare. We would like to extend an invitation to any of your staff to participate in the game jam, and to help spread the word around. It's easy to feel like the world is grim and somber, especially after the nastiness of the last few months, but we believe that a game jam about love and hope can disrupt that trend. So if you'd like to help, we'd greatly appreciate if you could signal boost our efforts, participate in the jam, and/or generally spread warmth and positivity to those involved in this culture.
tl;drLet's all make games this weekend for love, positivity, and hope ^_^
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