TakahashiAchievements Now Up on GGJ Wiki Page
LOS ANGELES – Jan. 24, 2011 -- The IGDA and the team behind the Global Game Jam 2011 is proud to announce that Keita Takahashi, creator of games such as Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy, will provide the video keynote via YouTube for GGJ 2011. Takahashi’s deconstructive and humorous talk is very different from previous years’ keynotes by Ste Curran (Zoe Mode) and Kyle Gabler (2D Boy).

“‘What Just Happened?’ was my initial reaction after watching the keynote,” says Gorm Lai, co-founder of the Global Game Jam. “Keita certainly delivers on the promise of a surprising and thoughtful talk for the industry.”

The keynote will be released via YouTube Friday, Jan. 28, at 5 p.m. local time in Auckland, New Zealand, just one of the Global Game Jam 173 locations registered by the IGDA or ACM, a participating organization, in 44 countries. The video will officially open GGJ 2011 because of time zone differences.

The Global Game Jam also features game design achievements, which are awarded for adhering to specific self-imposed design constraints by a participating team. As over 1000 games will be made during the weekend of the Global Game Jam, the achievements are not only aimed at providing extra motivation for experienced jammers, but also to diversify the games and to make it easier for a visitor to the website to find games that will be interesting to that person.

The just released achievements have been put together by a global team of designers, academics and volunteers, and can be found here: http://globalgamejam.org/wiki/achievements-diversifiers

Examples of achievements selected by the team range from the procedurally content-oriented “Automated Development,” and “Based on a True Story” to “Playing the Music,” which requires the game to last for exactly the length of a song.

The Global Game Jam is an official event organized by the IGDA during which professionals, indies and students from all over the World come together to make games over the course of a single weekend. GGJ is expecting more than 5000 people spread across 173 locations and 44 countries. To find out more, go to http://globalgamejam.org

Press contact:

Luis Levy
The Bohle Company for the IGDA
luisbohle [dot] com
310 785-0515 ext. 204