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[Corpus]

THE BERLIN INDIE GAME JAM
JUL 31 - AUG 3 2009
ST OBERHOLZ, BERLIN
TICKETS | MAP

The time has come at last. As some of you know, Robert (jsticker) and I have been working on this for a while at this stage, and it is therefore with great pleasure that we announce the Berlin Indie Game Jam. You know the drill with TIGJams by now: this is a chance to collaborate on awesome things, whether you're an artist, musician or programmer, meeting some great, likeminded (and, above all, talented) people in the process.

BIG will take place from Friday, July 31 to Monday, August 3. We've managed to secure a really awesome café for our purposes. It's called St. Oberholz, and it's located in the popular Mitte district of Berlin, right in the city center. Instead of spending a weekend in an office, we thought that the warm atmosphere of a well-run, laptop-infested café might be more in tune with the creative nature of an independent game jam. Thanks to its central location, it also offers the advantage of being nearby to a number of bars.

The proprietors have kindly offered us an area of the establishment's first floor (that's second floor to the Americans) on the proviso that attendees purchase food and drinks from the café. We'll be able to provide a detailed menu - largely consisting of good, home-made food, a variety of coffee and some exotic teas - later this week, but, to give you an idea of the sort of expenditure you'll be looking at, we estimate that €30 - €40 should be enough to get you through the weekend without feeling hungry or thirsty. As for your online needs, a free 50 mbit/s WLAN connection will be available.

The area we will inhabit is isolated enough to allow for some serious jamming, but sufficiently expansive to make up to about 30 tigers feel at home, if it comes to that. Unfortunately, due to the constraints obviously placed on space by the café environment, desktop PC setups will not be viable. Bring a laptop.

We found at TIGJam:UK that general, free-for-all jamming could prove somewhat directionless at times, so at this gathering we'll be having a few focused fixtures such as loosely themed 3-hour game competitions to help guide the combined creative energy. Naturally, though, this will all be optional, and the bulk of the time will still be available to focus on your very own ideas and projects.

Registration is open to anyone who wants to attend, but it's advisable that you do your best to be over 16 to avoid irritation at the cold, unfeeling hands of German youth protection law. Tickets are €5 to cover various administrative costs and are available here.

Finally, if you're looking for a place to stay, there's a hostel right across the road from the jam. Check it out here. Getting a room with other attendees would be a great way to save money while lowering your chances of sleeping feet away from an ill-scented and potentially dangerous wanderer, so feel free to use this thread to organise yourselves if you so desire.

OH, also: a handful of us will be sticking around for a day or two after the event proper, so feel free to join us


So, in summation:

• In a cool café with nice food and drinks
• Hostel and bars right outside
• Bring a laptop
• Meet awesome people
• Make beautiful things with said people
• Participate in 3-hour game competitions and other nice things
• €5
• 16+

If you have any problems or questions about how to get to the café, feel free to ask. Hope to see you there!

[increpare]

super

[smn]

I'll be there. If I'm not moving on that weekend, that is. 

[C418]

Okay, since the hostel isn't that cheap, we should really order bedrooms for more than 4 persons.

Well, 2-3-person rooms are okay too. But the gayer, the cheaper.

[smn]

I say 8 person Sausagefests!

[jstckr]

Since some people have been asking in the IRC channel: We'll be able to stay in St Oberholz until about midnight - that's when they plan to close their place.

Also, info on how to get to the place will be added in a few days, along with a fancy flyer.
There's a subway exit right next to the café, at Rosenthaler Platz, which makes getting there a lot easier. And to save you the trouble of having to understand Berlin's subway map, we'll let you know which lines to take to reach the jam from any of the two Berlin airports.

[Don Andy]

I'd buy a ticket, but I'm not sure if I can actually attend (time around August is sort of wonky and really hard to plan).

Should I still buy one, though? I'd feel sort of bad about stealing a ticket away from somebody and then not attend 

I'm not really concerned about the 5€ though. Those are peanuts, whether I actually attend or not.

[muku]

Cool stuff

I'm more or less in the same boat as Andy... maybe you can keep us updated when tickets are getting scarce, so that we can make a decision then?

i'm so damn noncommittal

[BMcC]

I almost got screwed by the airlines, with the ticket price doubling if I returned after July 31st.  But after some smooth talking, Anoush and I will be in Europe July 6th to August 6th, ready for BIG.

It's not as long as we were planning on traveling, but whatever, we'll be back soon enough.

[Kekskiller]

Berlin! My home town! I'm totally in.

My first TIGJam ever

[Terry]

I'm not sure if I have the money yet, but I'm interested! I'll see what I can do.

[increpare]

I'd be in favour of big hostel room myself. Low on cash atm.

[increpare]

i looked at the prices for a booking for 8, and it seems they're not able to fit eight in each night? hmm.

[increpare]

AAAAAAAAAAH booking flights can be so awkward.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGH.

[Corpus]

Yeah, it's looking like it might be easier to get a 4/5 bedder.

Berlin's full of hostels anyway. I'll see what nearby alternatives there are, just in case this one proves problematic.

I'm very low on cash myself, and jsticker doesn't have much to throw about either, I think, so we have a vested interest in finding cheap solutions


Oh, also, Don Andy and muku, I'll let you know if the number of tickets remaining is getting low.