Well what are you doing this weekend? I may be breaking a record..
Windows 8 Game Apps - World Record attempt for the Largest GameJam in a single location
Friday, Sept 14th to Sunday, Sept 16th
University of Bedfordshire, Luton
For the past few weeks we have been working closely with a specialised gaming institution called Train2Game to ensure that their students are firstly aware and secondly up to speed on developing beautiful stunning and awesome games on Windows 8.
So this weekend Microsoft will be supporting Train2Game. Guinness World Record Attempt GameJam.
Yes… we have taken over the University of Bedfordshire in Luton for the weekend. The University IT Team have successfully upgraded to Windows 8 and Visual Studio 2012 via DreamSpark premium.
The IT team have built a custom image and have successfully deployed this to the current PC estate for use throughout the event.
All the PC’s located in the computer labs and study spaces are now Windows 8 and the event images compromises of Windows 8 RTM, Visual Studio Ultimate RTM and various design and graphics packages and tools necessary to build amazing games.
The event will start on Friday and last for the next 48 hours we have over 330 game development students, these students will work in teams developing Windows 8 Game Apps using only C++ and DirectX. A unknown theme will be announced at the keynote by Scott Henson of MS Studios and officials from Guinness World Records will be present throughout the event adjudicating the proceedings. The existing World Record is held by Singapore at 301 game developers so we will all hopefully be successful record breakers on Sunday.
In preparing for the Game Jam the 330+ students have, for the past six weeks, been developing Windows 8 games to practise their skills. These 330+ students can also now take advantage of these skills and build and deploy games for FREE to the Windows Store using their DreamSpark subscriptions which provide them free developer accounts for the Windows Store and Windows Phone MarketPlace.
The experience and our involvement will help encourage them continue developing games in C++ and DirectX for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. Give the students some real practical example of working within teams and provide them with evidence and portfolios of real apps, with user ratings and feedbacks which they can then use to demonstrate skills to potential employers.
We are also working with Train2Game in building a Windows 8/Phone 8 Game Development module for their 9,000 students to take as an option on their Degree/Masters courses.
Happy coding! Oh yes, I will be playing some of the games developed on Sunday. So expect more details after I have recovered from sleep deprivation.