Global Game Jam has an official Russian representative. It became Yulia Lebedeva, partner and Executive Director of WN Media Group. Her tasks will include working with local event organizers.
What is Global Game Jam?
Global Game Jam is an annual game jam where developers from all over the world develop games on a given topic for 48 hours.
The event is global. All developers participate in it at the same time. As a rule, the dates of its holding fall on the last days of January.
Global Game Jam takes place necessarily on the basis of officially approved offline or online platforms. Each of them is assigned to a specific city and region.
To participate in the jam, the developer must either find an officially registered site in his city, or launch it on his own, having previously received permission from representatives of Global Game Jam.
Already within the framework of the platform, developers (so-called gemmers) unite in teams in order to immerse themselves in a creative race for several days on the appointed day and hour.
Was it possible to register sites in Russia before?
Yes. Moreover, Russian developers regularly participated in Global Game Jam. For example, on the basis of the SUSU Higher School of Electronics and Computer Science, Innopolis University, Yakutia Technopark, the Moscow IT hub Academy and other places.
That’s just earlier, Global Game Jam did not allocate Russia to a separate region. Alexey Izvalov, based in Kiev, was responsible for the entire Russian-speaking space as an organizer.
Now the situation has changed. Russia and Ukraine were separated into independent regions. As Alexey noted in a conversation with us, this happened thanks to the activity of participants from these countries, the number of games they created.
The regional organizer for Russia was Yulia Lebedeva, who is responsible for directing gaming events at WN Media Group (WN conferences — formerly White Nights, Talents in Games and others).
Alexey is responsible for Ukraine. As for Belarus, Global Game Jam now refers it to Eastern Europe, which also includes Poland, the Czech Republic and the Baltic states. Janis Shkulda is responsible for this region.
Such permutations are designed to simplify and accelerate the interaction of Global Game Jam with developers in these countries.
What will Julia do on behalf of Global Game Jam?
Its main task is effective interaction with the organizers of Russian venues. This implies:
- consideration and approval of applications from local organizers;
- negotiations with them (calls, finding out details about the place);
- transmitting official information on Global Game Jam to them;
- help and advice.
When is the next Global Game Jam?
You can apply for registration of a place until January 12, 2022.
The recommended time for jam this year is from January 28 to January 30. It starts and ends on the corresponding days at 17.00 in the time zone of the city to which the site is assigned.
However, this time the organizers have created a 10-day window — from January 20 to January 30 — within which the local organizers themselves must decide which 48 hours to hold the jam.
This decision was made by the management of Global Game Jam to take into account the interests of those developers who celebrate the Lunar New Year. Also, in the interests of gemmers who are forced to participate in the competition from home, the organizers will allow a number of local organizers to stretch 48 hours for five days.
The theme of the contest will be named before the start of the jam.
Which sites are already registered in Russia?
At the time of writing, only two sites are registered in Russia — in Kaliningrad and Chelyabinsk. You can quickly track information on the situation on the jam website, where you can also apply for registration of the site and your own participation.