The Indie Game Jam (IGJ) was an effort to rapidly prototype video game designs and inject new ideas into the game industry. Started in 2002 by a group of game designer-programmers, the event featured a shared game engine technology and worked on by other designer-programmers for a single long weekend. The games resulting from that weekend were then published, open-source, on the IGJ web page.
IGJ was known for innovation and rapid prototyping of new gameplay ideas. After the third IGJ, Doug Church commented, "[..] it's kinda true that nothing works, but you just throw everyone into the middle of the fire and things come out."[2] He commented that small experiments can lead to big developments in the field.[3] He also noted that while IGJ may not itself revolutionize the mainstream video game industry, it may inspire individuals to innovate.[4] Justin Hall explained that the "roots of electronic entertainment life [lie in such] collaborations".[5]
Each year, Indie Game Jam posed different questions about innovation of new settings, genres, and controls.[6]
The first Indie Game Jam (IGJ) named "0th Indie Game Jam." was held between March 15–18, 2002.[7] The idea for the event came from Chris Hecker and Sean Barrett,[7][5] who originally presented Dogma 2001 challenge for the 2001 Game Developers Conference (GDC), which strived to create games without relying on technology.[7][8] For the IGJ, the opposite approach was taken.[9] Hecker described the attempt as encouragement for experimentation with technology-driven design and pointed out that video gaming industry lacked innovation being restricted by publisher expectations for returns.[9] He proposed to use 100,000 sprites to produce a game.[7][5][8] During the jam 12 new games were developed by 14 programmers and designers.[7][5] All games used the same engine, which Hecker noted took considerable time to produce.[9] The engine was optimized and strived to stress the hardware.[8] He also noted that "great programmers" had to be chosen due to limited time and complex coding tasks.[9] The resulting innovative games, while in no way complete, were presented at the Experimental Gameplay Workshop session at the 2002 GDC and were well received.[9] The event was funded by donations: for example Intel supplied the team's personal computers.[9]
The second Indie Game Jam held in March 2003 used Zack Simpson's Shadow Garden technology, which used a human shadow projected on the wall as the primary interface.[10][11] The IGJ again had 14 programmers and designers participating.[11]
The third Indie Game Jam was held in March 2004 and two dozen programmers participated.[10] In the invitation letter, Hecker proposed to explore physics engine integration into gameplay.[10] The engine chosen was Atman Binstock's 2D physics engine with a framework for experimentation with various physical properties and object interactions.[10] The engine presented a challenge, because the real world physics did not necessarily correspond with the engine's features.[10] The jam explored level deformation and chaotic results from player's interaction with the physics engine.[10] It proved difficult to focus on game design rather than physics themselves.[10] The jam also invited a number of support stuff and artists to polish the games.[2] Almost all games produced used PlayStation 2 DualShock controllers.[2] While unfamiliarity with the engine and certain technical difficulties provided a challenge, in the end the team succeeded at producing working games.[2] In the end, the physics were seen as a field of potential innovation.[10]
The fourth Indie Game Jam held in March 2005 explored human interaction using 3D characters from The Sims.[3] The IGJ attracted professionals from various fields – art, sound design, game theory and education.[3] By this time, similar Game Jams had developed – in Lithuania, Toronto, Dallas, Boston, Ohio, and Nordic.[3]
