Helping run a #gamejam for local high school students this weekend through the university #gamedevelopment program that I teach in. Kick off was tonight and I had so much fun. It’s a small group, but the excitement and creativity on display was thrilling for me, as both an educator and an industry professional.
At the end of the weekend, with not too much help from our programming instructor and some of our programming students, we ended up with four little #games (from four teams). All of them were functional, and one of them was actually pretty great! The students learned a lot, and many of them were asking if we were going to run another jam in the future. We’re very excited to expand to more schools next year and apply what we learned this first go around.
Reply from @cj: @steinea Awesome! Was there something different about the excitement and creativity from the students that was different than what you’ve experienced as an industry professional?
Reply to @cj: @cj Oh definitely. There’s a joy the students have, and a desire to experiment, to do risky things, that gets regulated away by business interests. No OKRs, no metrics, no targets to reach at the jam. Just try to make something fun and functional, and have at it!