Scotland in Focus: Scottish Game Jam

SquareGo went west to Glasgow Caledonian University nestled in the city centre to interview Romana Khan about the second year of Scottish Game Jam, part of Global Game Jam, which she's organising.

Romana is, to coin a Scottish phrase, a canny lass and her passion for Scottish Game Jam as well as gaming in general really showed throughout our chat.

Anyone interested in taking part in the 48 hour event still has time as the closing date for entries is Wednesday 20th January.

So are you the sole organiser of Scottish Games Jam or is it a team?

Romana Khan: There's myself and my PhD supervisor Jon Sykes, we're both organising the event but I'm the one fully up to date with everything that's happening. Jon ties up ends with the university and I do the PR the web site and engaging the participants.

This is just the second year, were you involved last year as well?

RK: Yes. Last year was tough because I found out about Global Game Jam just before the Christmas holidays and thought, this is really exciting, we should get involved. It's a good idea and an international event although the idea is not to compete with one another but about the experience of getting involved in making a game.

I had a look around and no-one in Scotland was doing it so I spoke to Jon and he said, "That's great but can we actually prepare everything in two weeks?" We had to get our department on board, and organise things and had a very short space of time in which to do it all, so last year was a bit tougher but this year it's been easier as we were prepared from before because we knew we wanted to host this again. Our department has been really supportive in helping us host this event.

We were also able to make an impact with industry in Scotland and we were able to showcase the strength of our games course through the students who took part. As well as that we were able to get our name heard in the international community, which promoted our university, and it's game course.

This year's even more exciting because there are now 125 sites that have signed up across the world, from Chile to New Zealand. It is literally global. Last year we were able to talk to people in Costa Rica, saw participants in Australia and South Africa and what they were doing as most sites had live video feeds which we showed on big screen TV's. We kept changing the sites throughout the 48 hours and similarly other sites could tune in and see what we were upto.

We also had twitter feeds which we continuously updated and had two of the judges from Realtime Worlds following everything that was happening through that. It made the whole experience really interactive

Registration is closing quite soon. What do you need to register?

RK: Contrary to popular belief you don't actually need coding experience although it obviously helps. You need enthusiasm and passion and I'd urge people to register to participate, take part and see what it's like.

From some of the people who have registered so far there are some experienced coders and artists but we have students there as well in early years in university who get a chance to test their skills and see what's involved. So there are no strict criteria just a certain amount of programming, art or design experience would help.

So it doesn't matter where you're from?

RK: No. Last year we had someone from Northern Ireland who came along and this year we have a gentleman from London who's coming up to take part in the Game Jam here.

We've also got people from South America who took part in their home country last year but are now living in Scotland. They're coming because they really enjoyed the experience last year. It's really exciting.

It's crossing cultures and breaking down barriers as well?

RK: Yes. It's a great opportunity and experience for students because companies are always talking about portfolios and this is one way of getting started. Saying we created an experimental game. There might be lots of bugs as they only have 48 hours to develop them but there's nothing to stop the teams working on their projects after the Jam is done, developing the game and taking it further.

Is there the opportunity to play the games?

RK: All the games are available to play on the Global Game Jam website. The idea is about sharing and collaboration so you can see how other teams developed their games and learn from that. The teams themselves hold the rights to their Intellectual Property but there's nothing to stop seeing how it was all done.

Could you breakdown the format of the event from start to end?

RK: Last year we asked people to come about one o'clock to register and pick up their badges and then we had a series of technical and art talks by some of the staff members. We supplied the machines they worked on, although some people brought their own, so we needed to explain what software had been installed and what we recommended using as well. Then it was up to them what they wanted to use.

Last years keynote speaker was Kyle Gabler of World of Goo fame and this was broadcasted through youtube. We organised icebreakers for people to get to know each other because the idea is that you don't come with preformed teams, you get to know everyone else and once you find out the constraints and theme of the Jam you get your team together. Each "zone", for example Europe, has its own theme and constraints. Then everyone goes off to think about their ideas and then pitch them to the other contestants. If you like someone's ideas you go to that person to discuss their idea and that's how teams are formed.

It's more exciting and challenging and a new way of working as you get involved with people you don't know and provides a better experience. The team that won Scottish Game Jam last year were people who had just met on the day and formed a team. Some students formed teams with industry professionals and they enjoyed working with someone with more experience as they learned alot.

This year will be slightly different as we have people here from Dare to be Digital to do a presentation as well.

The only protocol here is regarding night time security. The building will remain open for the duration of the 48 hours, participants just have to inform security know when they're going in and out during night time.

Can they bring sleeping bags?

RK: We told them they can bring sleeping bags but the only problem here [Romana gestured to the large cafeteria we were talking in] is that the lights never go off. So people managed an hour or two sleep at most. This year we're trying to get a tent for them. So they can get more. Whether that breaks the spirit of the Game Jam I don't know.

Well it's the Game Jam tent.

RK: Exactly.

On Sunday that's when people start to panic a little bit as they know they have a deadline to complete. We tell them to be finished by 3pm because it gives them a window of opportunity where they can fix any problems that might arise. The games have to be uploaded to the Global Game Jam website by a certain time defined by the organisers. We have the earlier deadline as there's always an issue with so many people trying to upload games at the same time and the possibility that it could cause a crash.

Once the games were uploaded the judges went round and the teams presented their games and how they fitted in with the theme constraints. The judges then deliberated and we had a semi-formal presentation where they gave feedback for all the teams. This was great for the teams as they found out what they did and didn't like. It was all positive feedback as they appreciated what the challenges of the event were.

Possibly we'll enter a SquareGo team next year.

RK: That would be fantastic. We've tried getting some of the companies to enter teams but they're all so busy with deadlines it's hard for them. Last year we had people from Rockstar North register but they had to pull out due to a crunch phase in development.

Once the judging is done we're left with tidying up and everyone helps with that. The feedback we received from last years participants was good, the only thing they didn't like was the inability to sleep due to the lighting [Hence the tent].

Most said they'd come back and do it again and a lot of them have. Some people have now got jobs which restrict them from taking part but we have some new people with really interesting past experience.

Let's talk about the Scottish Industry. How have you found them?

Denki and Realtime Worlds are both involved in sponsoring our event. When I approached them last year I received tremendous support and enthusiasm from them which was really nice to see. They both definitely wanted to get involved and went to speak to people at their end to see how they could help and support.

That's carried through to this year as well as they definitely wanted to be involved again. They will be involved in judging the winners of this years jam.

I've had a really good experience with Denki and Realtime Worlds.

You've talked about Dare to be Digital as well. Anyone else involved?

No. Not this year.

Hopefully as you expand and the event becomes more successful you'll have greater involvement?

Yes. I think in its third year we'll have a stronger base as we can show the success from the previous two years. Smaller companies are a bit more tied down but Denki and Realtime Worlds provided prizes last year and are hoping to again this year. It's really nice of them.

I'm happy to hear from the smaller companies as well but Denki and Realtime Worlds have been great.

So what course are you doing?

RK: I'm pursuing a PhD in exer-gaming (exercise games) to see how these games can be used to encourage and motivate people to exercise.

Exergames present an exciting new medium for encouraging people to adopt healthy behaviours. Video games are uniquely placed to reach a wide spectrum of population ranging from children to adolescents to young adults.

The Wii has already broken down barriers.

I know people who have bought a Wii just to use Wii fit.

So it's looking at how these technologies can be used to promote exercise. Not necessarily be a substitute for using the gym but if people are in the house they can do exercise and see the benefits of exercising so they can see it isn't just a game. The potential to promote health through the medium of video games offers a very exciting avenue.

It obviously has made an impact as Sony and Microsoft have both demonstrated new projects at E3 involving motion control and/or interactivity.

Yes. In the US the concept of exer-gaming and games for health is huge. They have health farms there which use Dance, Dance Revolution. There are health camps for children and there has been lots of work on how using these systems can help with weight loss, general fitness and also recuperation from injuries.

What originally interested you in games?

It's probably that old clichéd thing that I've always played games since I was a child. When I was younger my family travelled around a lot due to my fathers work and so I developed a close bond with my brother and we used to play Atari and our parents got the old Nintendo handhelds with Donkey Kong on them and we played them everywhere we went.

Then one birthday my brother got a GameBoy and my birthday was two weeks after his and I got a GameBoy and I was forever hooked.

I studied internet software development at University and when I was coming to the end of the degree I considered doing my Honours project on HCI and mobile phones. I thought I could use it when looking for a job but it didn't excite me and so I went back to looking at the list of suggested topics and I noticed games were mentioned.

I thought, "No. Can you really do something in games as an honour project?".

This was the first time during my undergraduate that I was really excited about an area that really interested me. I submitted the findings from my honours project to DiGRA (The Digital Games Research Association) and they accepted my work. Being able to present my findings as well as meeting with peers during the conference convinced me to further my passion and that's why I did my postgraduate degree, which then led to my PhD.

One last question. Is Project Natal one of the ways you see exer-games moving on and how do you see the market moving in general.

I find it very exciting but it's hard to predict how it will change the industry as there are bound to be barriers and how fast developers can catch up with the hardware that's out there. The PS3 has great potential in the hardware itself but developers find it hard to realise its full potential.

It will be interesting to see how Microsoft launch it.

Scottish Game Jam is taking place from 29th to 31st of January and as always SquareGo will be there to report on it.