Board Game Jam is an opportunity to play creatively with a freedom not normally seen these days. It’s a celebration of simplicity, and a return to some pretty awesome fundamentals. Do you love board games? Then you’re perfectly qualified to do this.
Everyone is crazy bananas over games these days. From Gamercamp to Ubisoft Toronto, they’ve have captured both our imaginations and our economy. Most of the time, we’re talking about videogames. Because videogames are awesome. But it’s easy to forget that the principles that underlie good game-making don’t necessarily involve realistic physics engines, or even good control schemes. Much of game design has to do with abstract rules and mechanics that don’t have anything to do with technology.
At the same time, even while videogames seem to occupy the headlines, the world of board gaming is seeing a resurgence in some smaller part of our collective consciousness. All the hipsters know how to play Settlers of Catan, and Snakes & Lattes seems to be packed every single day. If you ask me, it’s part of some broader reconnection to real social interaction in so-called “meatspace,” but I’ll spare you the philosophizin’.
The point is that board games are both wonderfully accessible and quite deep. Everyone can intuitively understand the basics of what goes into making a board game. On a mechanical level, it’s simple arts and crafts. For people looking to be creative, that can be a great change from making a film or any kind of digital media, which require significant technical knowledge and a team of specialists. But making a board game can be lead you down a rabbit-hole into a world of rich creative exploration and sophisticated design. Like the best games of any sort, making a board game is both easy to learn, and tough to master.
Board Game Jam is a low-barrier way to enter the world of gamemaking, and have fun doing it.
Since there is some time now before this jam happens, how about considering a more spontaneous slant to the jam? The whole idea of a jam, to me, is to come up with ideas on the spot, and to see what can be created in a small amount of time. Somewhere on your site you encourage people to think about what they might do beforehand.. I think explicit planning goes against the concept of a jam, and having everyone start at as close to the same point as everyone else would be more interesting.
Of course, you can’t guarantee that people won’t come in with half-formed ideas already, so.. what about having a theme, or like some quick-turnaround writing competitions, have a couple of concepts or terms that MUST be baked into the game design?
Thanks for listening!
Sounds like fun! Am looking to find people to play with in York Region area.