The Grid reports on Toronto's annual
ToJam competition,
a contest that has participants design videogames from scratch in only
one weekend. The game-design marathon, now in its sixth year, attracts
over 200 participants and brings together the best of Toronto's
burgeoning software design scene.
"The premise of TOJam is that a bunch of people�over 200 this time, but
fewer in previous iterations�bring their computers to a George Brown
College building near King and Sherbourne on a Friday. The goal, by
Sunday night, is for everyone to have created a complete video game
from scratch�and that means art, music, code, and all."
"Anyone who's ever taken a course in computer science knows that a
single weekend isn't enough time to make something as complex as a
game. Even attempting to adhere to that sort of timetable would be a
little insane. And yet, TOJam attendees keep finding ways; this was the
annual event's sixth year."
"People continue to come out partly because the pressure-cooker
environment sometimes yields brilliance, and also because of the
networking opportunities. This year's guest list included a
Superbrother; other local gaming luminaries have been known to
participate.
Keeping things simple makes achieving that ridiculous deadline easier.
But Bethke and his five teammates (his Golden Gear Games business
partner Andrew Traviss, plus four graphic artists) weren't even doing
that. Their game was going to be a feature-rich platformer with an
elaborate back-story."
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original source
The Grid