Bridging Divides Game Jam

Interested in picking up some new skills in Game Design? The Bridging Divides Game Jam is a weekend-long event for migrants looking to gain new skills in game development. Learn to use different, beginner-friendly game engines, create original 2D art assets, and collaborate with a team to make your first game or to add another game to your portfolio! Everything you'll need is covered: optional pre-jam workshops are offered to introduce any beginners to different kinds of game creation and experienced mentors will guide and support you through the jam.

Bridging Divides Research
This event belongs to a larger research initiative exploring the effectiveness of Game Jams in re/skilling migrants. Participants will be asked to complete a mandatory pre-jam survey, a mandatory post-jam survey, and if they are interested will participate in a scheduled interview after the jam.

What is a Game Jam?
A game jam is a weekend-long event in which participants either go solo or form a team to make a game. Our event will be take place over the course of two days:

• DAY 1: February 7th (9am to 10pm)
• DAY 2: February 8th (9am to 7pm)

On the second day, the jam itself will finish at 5pm. From 5pm to 6pm we will have a showcase in which participants will get the chance to play each other's games and from 6pm to 7pm we will have closing ceremonies.

The research we're conducting specifically looks at the effectiveness of game jams to assist migrants in gaining vital soft and hard skills for entering a new professional domain. We hope that this jam will facilitate participants in acquiring skills needed to enter the game development profession as well as assist in research investigating barriers to professional development for migrants to montreal and barriers in general to acquiring skills for game development.

Our theme is BRIDGES! To build, to break, to connect, to navigate. Bridges can be infrastructures that connect different places or different people, but they can also be pathways to new information, they can be dangerous obstacles to overcome, a musical finale, or the thing that connects the tip of your nose to your face. Bridges are often liminal, and, as such, can take on different meanings and purposes in our lives. The theme is yours to interpret!

A Game Jam's theme is meant to help inspire you to build your game: feel free to use it however you'd like (or do something completely different)!

Who is this event for?
This jam is specifically for migrants with any level of experience in game design looking to make their first game, add a new game to their portfolio, and/or gain new skills in game development. The jam is a place specifically carved out to help re/skill migrants that are interested in starting their careers in the game industry. This event is a great place to pickup new skills, not only for the fact that the jam will give you a space to create a game but also that you will receive support both from the optional pre-jam workshops and the team of dedicated, experienced mentors present during the jam itself with expertise across different game creation engines and practices to guide and support you through the creation of your game.

Pre-Jam Workshops
Four free, optional workshops will be offered to participants to learn a variety of skills before the jam itself. These workshops will be hosted both in-person and online. An email will be sent out to participants in January to sign up for any or all workshops. Note that these workshops are optional: they only exist for anyone interested in their content.

• 2D Art Introduction
• Introduction to Game Jams
• Bitsy Engine Introduction
• Twine Engine Introduction

Info: Participants arrive to the jam location, get settled with some snacks and coffee, fill out the pre-jam survey if they have not already, and get ready for the jam ahead!

Info: The opening ceremony to the jam will include a keynote address from an invited speaker that migrated to Canada and currently works in the game industry. We will also introduce our team of mentors, go over some house cleaning items, and welcome our participants to the jam space.

Info: What's a game jam without a team? After the address, we will do some guided team formation where you will get to meet your other jammers, share your interests, and form groups based on the kinds of games you want to make. If you already have a team in mind, no problem! You'll skip this step and go straight to jamming!

Info: The rest of the day will be devoted to jamming! Get comfy, but on your slippers, find your spot and get to work. Our team of mentors will be available to assist you throughout the course of the day, around 2pm we'll take a short break to enjoy a catered lunch!

Info: Some game jams go on throughout the night, ours is instead a no-crunch event which encourages our participants to get some rest! We will be closing our doors at 10pm for jammers to go home, get some sleep, and come back the next day ready to go.

Info: Doors will open again at 9am for you to come back, find your teammates, and continue to jam! We will have snacks and coffee again for Day 2 as well as catered lunch around 2pm.

Info: At 1pm one of our mentors will run a quick workshop on how to set up an itch.io page for your game. Itch is a site that hosts a lot of independently made games and it's a great platform for beginner game developers to share their work and get some exposure. This is an optional workshop, but we ask that all participants upload their game not only to their itch page but to the jam's page at the conclusion of the jam. We recommend sending one team member to the workshop to get to know the site.

Info: You made it! The jam itself will conclude at 5pm. At that point, we'll ask our jammers to upload their games to itch and we will start our showcase! The showcase will allow participants to walk around the venue playtesting each other's creations.

Info: The closing ceremonies will congratulate our participants on making it to the end, issue a certificate to celebrate your achievements, go through a "next steps" for those interested in continuing their journey in game development, and ask participants to fill out the post-jam survey for our research. At this point, participants interested will also be asked to volunteer for a qualitative interview about the event. **note: if you opt to participate in the post-event interview you will not be expected to stay late, rather, an email will be sent to you to schedule a separate time.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher mLab at Concordia University