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IGJ2

IGJ2 is the third installment of the Indie Game Jam, a yearly game design and programming event designed to encourage experimentation and innovation in the game industry.

IGJ2 took place March 18 through March 21st, 2004, in Oakland, California. 21 game developers worked on experimental and innovative games over the course of 4 days!

From: Chris Hecker
To: A Small Group of Game Developers
Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2004 12:11:00 -0800
Subject: IGJ2 invite

smack This year's theme is "Physics in Gameplay", or, "Physics must be good for something besides ragdolls and exploding crates!"

The goal of IGJ2 is for attendees to do experimental game design with physics to really try to figure out how it can be used to qualitatively impact gameplay, and not just for effects. We'd like to put even more of an emphasis on thoughful game design experimentation this year. Getting a game done by the end of the Jam is still key, of course, but pushing in experimental game design directions is an important goal. To that end, we're extending the IGJ presentation time this year at the Experimental Gameplay Workshop at GDC so that in addition to the crazy whirlwind romp through the games, we can also have some of the games analyzed in more depth by their authors, with self-critique and discussion of the game design goals, what worked and what didn't, etc.

smack We think it's a great time to do a Jam about physics in gameplay, since a lot of developers in the industry are trying to figure out how to integrate physics into their commercial games as more than just special effects, and we can explore that space (stochastically :) and report the [potentially useful] results.

The IGJ2 engine technology is Atman Binstock's excellent 2D physics simulator, which he is generously donating to the Jam. He used it for his great IGJ1 games last year, and it's quite optimized at this point. See the attached insane screenshot of 1000 boxes stacking in real time (5000 contacts). It's a full-featured 2D simulator, with a constraint editor, and an Illustrator plugin for building objects and levels.

Chris

Read our Advance Press Release

Who is involved in IGJ2?

The core IGJ2 engine was designed and written by Atman Binstock. The event was hosted by Chris Hecker and Sean Barrett at the Washington Inn. PR and logistics support from Jen Pahlka.

This year's jammers:

Sponsorship and Support
Intel generously loaned us a bunch of hardware.

We would like to personally thank Kim Pallister from Intel's Developer Relations group for making this sponsorship happen, and we'd especially like to thank and praise Intel for supporting experimental game development! If only game publishers were so forward-looking!

RAD Game Tools We'd also like to thank RAD Game Tools, specifically Jeff Roberts and Mitch Soule, for their awesome financial and moral support.
We'd also like to thank The Independent Games Festival. They promote the same spirit of idealism in game development with their awards and mentoring for up-and-coming independent game developers.
OddWorld Logo And Oddworld Inhabitants, Lorne Lanning in particular, for their generous contribution of people and resources.
SourceForge Logo We'd also like to thank SourceForge.net for hosting the project and webpages. SourceForge is an amazing resource for developers, and they enable us to share the Indie Game Jam code with everyone.

The IGJ2 Games

View the Indie Game Jam 2 Games Here.

IGJ2 Photos

Sean Barrett
Justin Hall
Robin Hunicke
Thatcher Ulrich

Press Coverage

Darius Kazemi made a HopperQuest Fan Page
Justin Hall, Gamasutra, 5 May 2004
Jolex Del Pilar, VGLN, 20 March 2004
Alex Navarro, GameSpot, 19 March 2004

G4 TV segment on the Indie Game Jam - video, WMV format

If you're a journalist and you'd like to cover the Indie Game Jam, please contact Jen Pahlka at jen'at'pahlka.com.



Chris Hecker <checker'at'd6.com>, Justin Hall <justin'at'bud.com>