The Global Game Jam Online (2021) is 24 hours away in parts of the world, which means we are announcing to the public this year's theme, which is...
Lost & Found
The theme reveal clip at the end of the GGJ Online keynote video showed clips and images of long lost friends finding each other again, someone finding a needle in a haystack, a message in a bottle and lost animals being guided home.
The theme is always decided over months of deliberation by an amazing creative team with a wide mix of experience and views on the game design process. This year our committee consisted of:
Team Coordinator - LAURA E. HALL
Laura E. Hall is an artist, writer, puzzle-maker, immersive environment and narrative designer living in Portland, Oregon. Her work focuses on the intersections between arts, culture, and technology, especially in gaming.
Hall is a co-founder of Portland’s first escape the room game company, the award-winning 60 Minutes to Escape, and the author of Katamari Damacy for Boss Fight Books. She now creates exciting adventures for the curious at heart with Timberview Productions and Meridian Adventure Co. Her upcoming book Planning Your Escape: Strategy Secrets to Make You an Escape Room Superstar will be published by Simon & Schuster’s Tiller Press in August 2021. She proudly serves on the board of the Portland Indie Game Squad (PIGSquad), a non-profit organization supporting game development and indie game enthusiasts in Portland.
Many thanks to the whole team - we can't wait to see what our jammers come up with this year!
Shalev
Shalev is a game designer and artist. He runs the political sci-fi project Speculative Tourism. His past roles include Game Designer at Plarium, Lead Game Designer at PortaPlay and at Stikipixles, Lecturer at Shenkar College’s Game Center, and Games Program Curator at Print Screen Festival. He received his B.A. from TAU's Honors Program in the Humanities and Arts, and his M.A. in Game Design from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.
NOMI
Nomi aka the_nomi is a video creator whose mission is to make you forget about everything for a while with videos. When she’s not making videos, Nomi runs Gæmz Meetup to share art/experimental games stuff and everything and also to do more game jams.
You can see Nomi’s work at http://www.thenomi.com.
SHRINGI KUMARI
Shringi Kumari is a seasoned game designer with 13 years of game development work experience across several countries. She is currently working on a game about failed communications and is a lecturer and researcher of game design. In her PhD she applied stage magic principles to create moment-to-moment motivating uncertainty in games about which she has spoken at several (academic and industry) conferences. She is a published writer (poetry, fiction)- her debut poetry book "The Saree Shop" explores topics of identity, the idea of home, burden/relief of culture and dynamics of human relations.
You can read some of her work on https://medium.com/@shringikumari and her website - shringikumari.com.
VICTOR BREUM
Victor Selnæs Breum (he/him) is a game designer from Copenhagen, Denmark. He studies Game Direction at the National Film School of Denmark, and is currently creating an online multiplayer incremental game on the side. He got an Honourable Mention at the IGF 2020 for Best Student Game, and used to design treasure hunts for adults at fancy castles and museums in Copenhagen and Vienna. He also led the organization of the iconic Nordic Game Jam, the origin of Global Game Jam, for two years.
Victor loves groundbreaking, rich games of any format, and is mesmerized by mystery design and modern investigative games, as well as games with intense, tender emotions.
Here he is, disguised as a website: victorbreum.com.
Lujan Oulton
Lujan is a video games curator, specialized in playful media, experimental & art games. In 2009 she created “Game on! El arte en juego”, an experimental and art games exhibition, which has been running since then in Argentina. Ten years later she co-founded with Jim Munroe GAIA (Game Arts International Assembly) an international event for the game arts curators, producers and community organizers ecosystem. She is a strong advocate for women in games and for the exploration of video games within the art field. She has organised game jams exploring non-conventional subjects such as Alt Ctrl, an education sex-jam, diversity and personal games. She is also a TEDx speaker and has been selected to integrate the list of #100GameChangers by Gamesindustry.biz. http://luoulton.com/