Pre-Jam preparations ran late. 9 pm, and still loads to do

Like... unpack all the computers and set them up!

No small task - especially since they were in shipping crates - in the basement.

Was going to be a long night - so I went to get snacks.

Things went pretty smoothly, once I got all the machines running.

3 of them, tho, did not work quite right.

(I was a little punchy).

I slept till 9 and woke up ready to... finish my grading. Then jam.

Other jammers showed up the next morning, debating and collaborating almost immediately.

Look at how they demolished my snacks!

Justin arrived from SXSW, after a long delay in the Austin airport.

We jammers were already exhausted - and so, acted silly as hell.

Our poor waitress!! At one point, Justin joked that we would have to vote on giving her a tip. Clearly Chris and Austin were skeptical. Jon almost fell asleep right at the table.

People worked hard all day. It was difficult to make things work like you wanted to, and a lot of people worked quietly, throwing away ideas and starting fresh.

We ate a huge meal at the Tea House restaurant - and on the way home, saw this beatiful but wild-looking bird, on the top of a parked car. Eventually we figured out it was digging fish out of a nearby garbage can. Couldn't decide if seeing it was good luck, or a really bad sign.

The next day I woke up very late, and ... went to eat brunch at the wonderful (but now closed) "crepes place" (that's what everyone always calls it). Look at that latte! Almost as pretty as Brian, backlit by the beautiful bay windows. We ate lunch AND dessert crepes.

Then, after more work, we all... went out to eat again! Ok really we never programmed any games - we just ate food and slept the whole weekend.

7 courses of Vietnamese beef.

Mmmm. Beeeeeef.

These shots show "my" corner of the room on Saturday night.

I'd wanted to make a shoe game - but failed and ended up making this crazy space-ship drawing tool (thanks and more to Sean and Zack who both helped me when I was "stucked"). In the end, tho, Sean came through with a game called "Boot Looter" - supposedly about a suburban woman searching for shoes in a deteriorating shopping mall. It featured level geometry that could be knocked about.

Chaim pondered his tree/fruit game for a long time... and I think he was kind of worried that it wouldn't work out. But in the end, it was the game of the jam, hands down. Co-op was key!

Thatcher's robot boxing game was super silly and fun. Everyone loved to play it. So goofy!

Doug spent a lot of time tuning his balance board game. The Foley sounds didn't make it into the final build - but it was still pretty fun. Thatcher, man of spring-bound humanoid forms, made Doug a "balance dude" who wobbled and swayed when you moved the board.

I had to leave the jam relatively early on Sunday morning, to meet up with the Tuning Workshop folks in San Jose. But when I finally crashed on Saturday, people will still working hard, discussing the designs and sound and art for their games.

A very creative bunch, indeed.

Thanks to all our sponsors - without whom there would be no machines, no snacks, no jam.

 See you next year!