The Downtown Milwaukee campus had the pleasure to hold the Global Game Jam over the weekend of Jan. 23.  Global Game Jam is an event where people all over the world share their games they created with others and have a blast doing it.
There were many students participating: from first semester students, to graduate students, MATC students, UWM students and MSOE students. The Global Game Jam has more than 500 locations throughout the world, and MATC was one of those many locations to showcase games that people created. Most of the students that were in the groups were in the game development program.
To get started the students first watch a keynote event for inspiration. Once they are done watching it, they get the theme. This year’s theme was: What Do We Do Now. Given this theme the students got to work on their games. The sky was the limit to what they could make. They could make card games, board games, video games, anything that incorporated the theme. The Global Game Jam showed off the students’ creativity and what they could do.
The Global Game Jam is a kick start to new games.  If it were not for the community, we would not have the fun games we have today. Feedback is important to any field, especially games. You want games that people will play and enjoy. You don’t want it to be a game sitting in the 99 – cent bin at your local GameStop when you make it big. You want people to want to play your game when they get home from work.
So the Global Game Jam is a way to get your game out there for the public. This is also for the game developers to get the hang of what they want and like to do. It pushes them in the right direction.
This is the fifth year that the students at MATC are a part of the Global Game Jam and they plan to keep on doing it.
Every one of the students had fun showing off their creativity and sharing what they love to do with the public. Michael Anderson, instructor of the Computer Simulation and Gaming program and the main person who ran the event, said that he encouraged everyone to join in next time. Students do not have to be a part of the game development program to join in on this fun.
Students who have a curiosity about how some of the games are developed, or even are curious about how a game is put together and want to be a part of that, are welcomed.
If anybody is curious about the video games the students created, or anybody created, go to GlobalGameJam.org and you can find all the online games there. The games are free to play and enjoy.