Anthony Ortega: " I really do look forward to the Global Game Jam every year!"
Anthony has been hosting Global Game Jam sites for ten years. This is his story and greetings to the Global Game Jam Community.
"My name is Anthony Ortega. I’ve been working with Harrisburg University for about 12 years as a Production Coordinator for our Center for Advanced Entertainment and Learning Technologies. I’m also a corporate faculty for our Interactive Media Bachelors Program.
Additionally, in my spare time, I try to develop games for both digital and tabletop. I believe that I heard about the Global Game Jam through the IGDA. I was a member back then and I pitched it to my boss as an opportunity to get our design students into extracurricular design activities. Harrisburg University is a very young university and Harrisburg itself is not a game development hub, so we were really looking for opportunities to start trying to support and grow the local game development community.
Having done game jams in the past, I had an appreciation for how it can bring creators together to make and share. After we got accepted to be a host site, I advertised the event as much as I could and we ended up with, maybe, 40 jammers? We had a healthy balance of university students and developers from the community come and jam.
It was a great time and we saw no reason to stop. Now we’re going to be a host site for our 11th year and we continue to get a healthy mix of our students, students from other universities, and local creators. We also always have those that join us every year and those who join us for the first time.
I can’t say that we’ve grown out of the 40 person range; we usually get between 20 – 40, but the group we do get every year is always passionate and dedicated. I really do look forward to the Global Game Jam every year!"
See all the current approved Global Game Jam 2023 sites here: globalgamejam.org/status