Indie Game Jam

Right now (yes literally right now), I'm on the road shooting something which may or may not turn into something really great. Of course, it could also turn out to be absolute rubbish. The funny thing about this is this: The thing I'm doing is about people doing something exactly like that.

I'm at the Indie Game Jam 3 in Oakland at the beautiful Washington Inn. Fifteen feet away from me are twenty some people that are intently trying to create finished video games in just under four days. I won't go into the history of the Jam, (I'll let the website tell you that) but I will say that this (or at least the idea of this) is fantastic and brilliant and could (note: could) lead to some incrediblely new ideas in the world of video games. At the same point, these games could (note: could) entirely fail to do the event justice. No one here knows yet and that's really what's so cool.

Everone starts with the same tool set and engine. The people from Electronic Arts have graciously donated a TON of animations and models from the Sims and it's myraid expansion packs. Intel has donated the computers. And a bunch of people have donated there minds. All in the name of risk (at least that's how I perceive it).

Risk. It's easier than it sounds but harder than it seems. If anything that initial push into the unknown is the simple part, the biting off more than you can chew (at least for now), ignoring those that have said no before. What's harder is the creeping sensations that set in over the course of the thing, the little problems you never expected, the sense of something never coming together. Like exploring a new neighborhood, you never know what (or who) will be coming around the corner ahead.

And yet without it, something else happens. Things stay the same. Complacency sets in. Something withers. Not dead but most definitely dormant.

There's a fear that comes from being there. Or finding yourself on the way. I've felt it and it's not much fun.

There isn't much of that fear here in Oakland now.

Stay tuned for more from IGJ 3. I'll upload some pictures when I get a second or two.

Oh BTW, I'm actually here to make this into a half-hour special. We'll see if it works. I sure as hell hope so.

posted by Gavin Purcell @ 1:31 PM