A guest post from Amanda Ford. Read on!
Well it’s that time of year again everyone. Mini Game Jam will soon be upon us again and this post is a call for help.
My Jam has been growing slowly over the past couple of years and I am now in year 6 of it and so far over 1000 schoolchildren have participated. With support from Glasgow City Council Education Services and Renfrewshire Education at least 13 Learning Communities across both will be taking part with their associated primary schools and I am super excited about this. Winners from each Learning Community will go on to a final on the 20th June (tbc). The game jam is becoming increasingly popular with primaries and I know how much the kids love the actual event. However teachers too also see the benefit of making games and I hope by taking part in this the kids not only get to spend time making a game but get to meet new friends and get inspired by mentors helping out and realise that there are careers out there in the games industry.
I am looking for volunteers who are interested in helping encouraging children with their game ideas and supporting the on the day, no prior knowledge of Scratch programming is necessary (I can provide some training on it if need be). Each event runs from 9.30am until 2.30pm and I will confirm dates asap however they are all during May & June. It’s basically based on the Global Game Jam idea just I condense that into a school day for the kids. See here for some more background & info on the jams
Provisional dates still a couple of events to be added.
2/5/18 Lochend
10/5/18 Holyrood
11/5/18 Cleveden
17/5/18 Bellahouston
24/5/18 Notre dame
30/5/18 Smithycroft
31/5/18 St Pauls
1/6/18 St Rochs
8/6/18 St Thomas Aquinas
13/6/18 Whitehill
If you can spare some time doesn’t need to be a full day please email minigamejam@gmail.com
As well as volunteers I am also looking for sponsors for the final event. I try each year to provide a prize (nothing big normally a DIY gamer kit for each child in the team for 1st and gift voucher for 2nd place) and this year is no different so please get in touch if you can help it would be much appreciated.