NASA Game Jam, March 8-10, 2013

Locations

The jam has completed!

Want to host a Dark Side Jam in your own city? Check out this guide!


Over 40 playable games made at the Dark Side of the Jam!

Our ustream channel hosts videos from Saturday and Sunday
Most of the orientation talks.

For this jam, we have a constraint and an inspiration. The constraint is to use at least one NASA asset in your game. For inspiration, we’ve chosen these 11 quotes, in honor of Apollo 11, and you should pick a quote and have it inspire and influence your game design!.

  • Nothing endures but change. – Heraclitus, about 500 B.C.
  • Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. – Lord Kelvin, 1892
  • New ideas are not only the enemies of old ones; they also appear often in an extremely unacceptable form. – C.G. Jung
  • There is nothing so far removed from us to be beyond our reach, or so far hidden that we cannot discover it. – Rene Descartes
  • Remember this: once the human race is established on more than one planet and especially, in more than one solar system, there is no way now imaginable to kill off the human race. – Robert Heinlein
  • It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. – Neil Armstrong
  • The Moon is the first milestone on the road to the stars. – Arthur C. Clarke
  • Go, baby, go! -Walter Cronkite
  • We’re made of star-stuff. -Carl Sagan
  • A tiny blue dot set in a sunbeam. Here it is. That’s where we live. That’s home. -Carl Sagan
  • Houston, we have a problem. -Apollo 13

Take those quotes and run with them! Be prepared to talk about which assets you used and which quote you were inspired by in your presentation at the end.

Sponsors

Game Assets

NASA’s complete catalog of digital photos and assets is available for all participants to download and use. See the full range of what’s available.

Blog

The Dark Side is Near

2013/3/7

darth-vaders-favorite-side-of-the-moonFirst of all, we’re ridiculously excited to have such an amazing crew of out of this world game developers joining the Dark Side!

Its going to be a great weekend of jamming, and we’re looking forward to meeting everyone coming. A few house keeping notes before you arrive…

Don’t forget…
1. your computer… that would slightly hinder your ability to jam.
2. Snacks/money for extra food etc. We will provide light food for everyone while we’re there, but I imaging some people are hungrier than others. If you’re one of the really hungry people, you might want to come prepared.
3. Your ID, NASA is a little more strict than the 500 Club down the street on who comes and who goes.
4. pillow/sleeping bag/airmattress/ whatever makes you comfortable, if you’re just crashing in the conference center. If you have a room at the NASA Lodge, don’t forget to check in with them before coming to the conference center for the Jam. They don’t have an attendant past 10pm.
… which brings me to …
4A. there are more rooms at the Lodge! If anyone wanted one but didn’t get one, please contact 650.603.7100 and tell them you’re with the GameJam. Rooms are still $55/night.

Arrival
- Anywhere between 5-7pm is fine to come on over. We’ll have food starting at 5:30, and cool NASA displays and people to talk with. Beer/wine will be available for purchase onsite. The Jam Orientation starts promptly at 7pm, please make sure you’re there by then at the latest.
- Game development will go straight through until 5pm on Sunday. At which time, all pencils down, and presentations begin!

Tweet!
Please follow us – @darksidejam
Please tweet tons about all the kickass things we’re going to do this weekend using #darksidejam

Games…
Let’s make some kickass games! NASA will be blown away by all the amazing things we can create!

Winners Don't Use Drugs… oh, but since it is a federal facility, please just refrain from things like drugs, pornography and the like. Though, not strictly forbidden (in the games… in real life, it very much is…) we do want to be able to do this again at NASA. They’re being very gracious hosts!

We’re very stoked to see you all, and excited that we have 6 amazing satellite jams happening for DSJ and can’t wait to see what comes out of the weekend!

DSJ Management Team.

The Dark Side Speakers – a power punch of awesome!

2013/3/7

explosionSo not to toot our own horn or anything like that, but we have one hell of a good line up of inspiration for the Dark Side Jam! Friday’s orientation includes Pete Worden, you know, a guy just like you and me… oh and he also happens to be a Retired Brigadier General and the current Center Director of NASA Ames and he was one of the key players in developing the first VTVL space flight vehicle and… well, you get the point.

In addition to Pete Worden, NASA is rolling out the red carpet with other inspirational speakers for the orientation to the Dark Side of the Jam. You’ll hear about “Intelligent Robotics Group” at NASA Ames, and about NASA’s Centennial Challenges program that puts out multiple million dollar prizes for great new technologies each year, and more! Check out the full lineup for the orientation:

5:00 PM Open Checkin/Registration
5:00 – 7:00pm Opening Reception
7:00 – 7:15pm Night Rover Challenge Orientation, Joshua Neubert, Director, Night Rover Challenge
7:15 – 7:30pm Keynote and Welcome, Pete Worden, NASA Ames Center Director
7:30 – 7:45pm NASA Centennial Challenges Introduction, Sam Ortega, Program Manager, Centennial Challenges
7:45 – 8:30pm NASA Panel of Awesome – An interactive Q&A (“Panel of Awesome” is a working title, but we like it).
– Dave Korsmeyer – Small satellites
– Ross Beyer – Mars exploration
– Terry Fong – Intelligent Robotics Lab
– Greg Schmidt – Lunar science
– Mike Dudley – Aeronautics
8:30 – 8:40pm Introduction to Game Jam Assets – Ryan Williams
8:40 – 9:30pm Team Building
9:45 PM Team Submissions
9:45 – infinity Open development/brainstorming

This is going to be legend… (anyone anyone?)

Welcome to the Dark Side!

2013/2/14

ames

Welcome, Space Gamers, to the Dark Side! (We have cookies!)

We’re working hard gathering models, props and technical experts who work for NASA to help feed your awesome imaginations and creativity to develop a whole new generation of great space and science based games.

Dark Side of the Jam is going to be held on the grounds of NASA Ames Research Center, home NASA’s Astrobiology Institute, Lunar Science Institute, Aeronautics Research Institute, and more!

It will be an awesome weekend to be inspired by NASA and each other, and show off what you can do with a computer, some time and a lot of caffeine.

Management & Legalese

NASA would like us to tell you that this is in no way, shape, or form, officially sanctioned, managed, condoned, or sponsored by NASA itself. This “Dark Side of the Jam” is legally managed by the Night Rover Challenge, a program of the Cleantech Open and a NASA Centennial Challenge with a $1.5 Million prize purse for ridiculously amazing energy storage technology. In addition to this awesome competition, the Night Rover team is creating a robust education program, which is why the Dark Side of the Jam exists… yes, games are educational.

NASA’s Centennial Challenges program supports the educational efforts of the Night Rover Challenge and has coordinated the opportunity for us to host this game jam onsite at NASA’s Ames Research center.

Due to the tenuous nature of this relationship, please do not: smuggle illegal contraband, use the NASA “meatball” logo in obscene ways, blow anything up, or otherwise conduct yourself in unsavory behavior while on the NASA facility. It is a federal offense to do so.

Now, with that out of the way, enjoy the Jam!