Register on our Eventbrite!
— What is a game jam? —
According to Wikipedia, a game jam is a gathering of people for the purpose of planning, designing, and creating one or more games within a short span of time, usually ranging between 24 and 72 hours. Participants are generally made up of programmers, game designers, artists, writers, and others in game development-related fields. It’s like a hack-a-thon but just for games.
— What is Quo Vadis? —
Quo Vadis is a Latin phrase that means “Where will you go?” and it’s the name of the student organization at the University of Pittsburgh that gives tours of the Cathedral of Learning Nationality Rooms.
This is a jam specifically themed around creating games based on our nationality rooms, and one primarily meant for Pitt Students and other University students in the Pittsburgh area. Non-students are welcome to participate remotely, but we cannot welcome the public to the on-campus event.
— Theme & Constraints —
The jam is themed around the Pitt Nationality Rooms; all registered teams will be assigned a nationality room on the first day of the event and have two weeks to create a game, digital or analog, that explores that space. Ideally, these games should explore the culture of that nation in the time period the room is depicting, pulling from iconography present in the room.
Non-Pitt-Students who are participating remotely may choose a room to focus on, on their own. Check out the wikipedia page or official website for details and photos.
— Rules —
Note: Partly adapted from Major League Hacking and Games4Health.
- Teams may be 1-5 members. We encourage multi-disciplinary teams, so try to make a friend from another field!
- Given that these games will deal with the history and culture of a given nation, please be respectful of that history and culture. We will not tolerate hate!
- Be respectful. Harassment and abuse will not be tolerated.
- Be nice. Yes, that’s a rule. The University of Pittsburgh embraces diversity and inclusion. We believe that every single person has the right to work and learn (and in this case develop games) in a safe and welcoming environment.
- Do not harass anyone!
- Harassment can include but is not limited to offensive verbal or written comments related to gender, gender identity, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.
- If what you’re doing is making someone feel uncomfortable, that may be harassment and is reason enough to stop doing it.
- Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.
- Sponsors, participants, judges, mentors, volunteers, organizers, University staff and anyone else at the event are also subject to University policies. In particular, attendees should not use sexualized images, activities, or other material both in their games and during the event.
- Individuals attending and participating in the Game Jam are encouraged to immediately report any allegations of harassment or discrimination to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion https://www.diversity.pitt.edu/people.
- Intellectual property (IP) laws still apply! We cannot stress enough that no team/individual participant of Quo Vadis Game Jam will illegally exploit others’ IP.
- The overall ideas, design, game mechanics, etc… have to be original and have to be created by YOUR team.
- If your game includes code, designs, images, assets developed by someone else, you have to ensure that you either have permission to use those assets (for example, assets available under open-source licenses or purchased / downloaded from Unity Asset Store)
- For any assets not created by you, you must document where those assets came from – you can use comments in your code to cite your assets’ sources
All participants agree that their participation in the Quo Vadis Game Jam will hold no one liable for any loss or damage.
— Why a slow jam? —
This jam is a ‘slow jam’, meaning it has a slower pace than a typical game jam or hackathon. This is specifically so that it can fit into students’ schedules. Though we hope our participants use the extra time well, we are not expecting them to work at the same non-stop pace they would at a 24 or 48-hour game jam. Please get some sleep.
— (Tentative) Schedule —
Again, non-students are welcome to participate remotely, but we cannot welcome the public to the on-campus event.
Friday, February 22nd
3rd Floor of the Information Science Building
6:00pm-7:00pm : Orientation and Hors d’oeuvres
7:00pm-7:30pm : Opening Speeches
7:30pm-8:00pm : Team Registration and Theme (Room) assignment
8:00pm-9:00pm : Brainstorming!
Saturday, February 23rd
Cathedral of Learning Nationality Rooms
12:30pm-4:00pm : Individual Team Tours of their assigned nationality room.
Friday, March 15th
3rd Floor of the Information Science Building
11:59pm : Deadline to submit games for judging.
Sunday, March 15th – Friday, March 29th
Judging Period
Friday, March 29th
3rd Floor of the Information Science Building
6:00pm-8:00pm : Convention-style presentations/celebration.
8:00pm-9:00pm : Awards and closing remarks.
— Slack —
We have a slack where everyone can chat about the jam, or join early to try to network for teammates. You can join here.
— Partners —
This game jam is hosted by Quo Vadis and Pitt’s game design club, games-edu.
1,124 thoughts on “Quo Vadis Game Jam”
Comments are closed.