The Art Institute Of Portland Host Location For Global Game Jam 2010

Feb. 11, 2010 - PRLog -- The Art Institute of Portland was honored to be Oregon’s only venue to host the 2nd Annual Global Game Jam (January 29-30, 2010) last weekend. This yearly event is put on by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), which challenges teams from around the globe to create a game based on a centralized theme, in 48 hours. The announcement of this year’s theme, “Deception,” took place Friday, January 29 at 5pm and kicked off the event.

“Hosting the Global Game Jam was an incredible benefit to our students, who had the opportunity to learn from, and network with, local industry professionals on an event, which strives to unify the industry on a global-scale,” said Laurie Torelli, Academic Director for Game Art & Design, Media Arts & Animation and Visual & Game Programming at The Art Institute of Portland.

Motivated by collaboration, creativity and caffeine, 34 local gamers, members of the Portland Area Game Developers Interest Group (PAGDIG) and Art Institute students not only met the challenge, they surpassed it—developing five games over the weekend, which can be viewed on the Global Game Jam site, globalgamejam.org/games. “I learned a lot over the weekend and feel the experience was equal to what I expect my career to be like,” said Russ Allen, a Visual & Game Programming student at The Art Institute of Portland.

Portland was one of 138 venues worldwide to participate in this year’s event.

On February 24th, participants of the Global Game Jam will present a “post-mortem” of this year’s event, during PAGDIG’s monthly meeting at The Art Institute of Portland. If you are interested in learning more about PAGDIG or The Art Institute of Portland, this is a great opportunity. February 24th, 2010 beginning at 7pm at The Art Institute of Portland, 1122 NW Davis St. Portland, OR 97209, 2nd Floor Open Space. For more information visit www.aidepartments.com/news www.aidepartments.com/news .

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The Art Institute of Portland is one of The Art Institutes (www.artinstitutes.edu), a system of more than 45 education institutions located throughout North America, providing an important source of design, media arts, fashion and culinary arts professionals.