The second ever Global Game Jam is on this weekend and everyone here at Let’s Make Games would like to wish all participants the very best of luck.

For those of you who don’t know about the phenomenon that is Global Game Jam, here’s a quick summary: 48 hours of unadulterated creative energy poured into collective game development at breakneck speeds by teams all over the world!

Here in Perth, the local site is being hosted at the Joondalup Business Centre. Setup begins at 5pm tonight and submissions must be in by 3pm on Sunday (the event officially ends at 6pm on Sunday – leaving some time to actually play the games!).

Thanks to the efforts of Simon Wittber (aka. Different Methods), Perth is very well represented as a regional centre for game jamming. Perth was the only Australian location for the first Global Game Jam (at which point Simon had already organised two previous local game jams). This year, the Perth site is also being supported by local game developers Rockethands and Subversive Games.

For more information, see: the Global Gam Jam website; the list of participants for the Perth site; the local event schedule; and the official website for the Perth site.

Thanks to everyone who attended (you make organising these events worthwhile), our volunteers (Stewart, Brett, Alex, Saxon, Steve, Nigel, John, Sam, Simon, Anthony), and our sponsors (Different Methods, the Innovation Centre, Subversive Games, Rockethands, Black Lab Games, and Reveries Virtual World):

Special thanks also to all companies that contributed to the showreel (apologies to Binary Space for not getting their “Class 3 Outbreak” teaser in) and to Game Pride for bringing along some laptops to demonstrate their latest game “Boo!”. Thanks also to Ben, who took most of the photos.

Here are some photos from the night in chronological order:

iParty 2.0 wouldn’t be possible without the kind support of our sponsors. When we put the call out a few weeks ago, we didn’t know what sort of response to expect. We’re incredibly appreciative and humbled by the level of sponsorship offered by the following local organisations, companies, and individuals:

• Different Methods: Apparently Simon is not content with just organising local and global Game Jams, hosting and maintaining Planet PIGMI, and undertaking some of the most amazing games-related work in Perth. He’s also come on as our biggest sponsor, making us feel all warm and fuzzy with his support.
• Innovation Centre: Always keen to lend a hand to local industry groups (such as ours!) the Innovation Centre kindly offered the use of their fantastic professional events venue. Our drinks will be kept cool in their fridges and our work will be displayed on their projector and plasma screen. It’s great!
• Subversive Games: Subversive creates training games and advergames for the rapidly expanding serious games market. One of a handful of larger professional games companies with a studio in Perth, Subversive Games continues to show it’s strong support for the local scene.
• Rockethands: If the group shot on their website is anything to go by, Rockethands are the coolest game developers in Perth… ever. You can tell that they keep it real, and evidently put their money where their mouths are. We know that money can be hard to come by for indie developers and it means a lot to us that you guys have sent some our way!
• Black Lab Games: The latest game development initiative by one of Perth’s veteran game developers (Paul started his first games company back in 1992!) Paul has an infectious passion for games and independent development, which he shares with others as a founding committee member of IGDA Perth Chapter.
• Reveries Virtual World: Avril is obviously a real trend-setter, jumping right in as our first financial sponsor. Reveries has all of us at Let’s Make Games very excited with anticipation. Thanks for being so forthcoming in supporting our community events Avril!

With all this support iParty 2.0 is shaping up to be the best night of the year for local game developers. If you haven’t yet RSVP’d, please do so using the contact page or by registering for the event on Facebook. It’s a free event with food and drinks provided (thanks to our awesome sponsors!).

See you all in just over 2 weeks!

Let’s Make Games events are fun social get-togethers for local game developers and gamers. It’s great to catch up with the local scene and see what people they have been working on, and there’s always a friendly atmosphere for curious newcomers.

The original event announcement has all key information, but here are a few new highlights…

GameTraders (Carillon City and Carousel) will be bringing along two PSPs for a pre-release demonstration of Dissidia: Final Fantasy. One PSP will be connected to a projector for general viewing. Dissidia: Final Fantasy is scheduled for local release in September.

A number of local games companies will be demonstrating their latest iPhone games. This includes Surf Prodigy by DrewFX and RocketFuse by RocketHands. Also attending (and possibly demonstrating) will be game developers from Istpika, Spinfast, Staring Man, Subversive Games, Black Lab Games, Interzone Entertainment, Sandbox Software, and Kruger Heavy Industries.

Crewjo are looking for local mobile game developers and may make a brief announcement. Finally, GO3 will be announcing a special opportunity for local developers to showcase their work and to network with other companies at the upcoming GO3 Electronic & Entertainment Expo in October.

We hope to see you there!

We apologise if we missed mentioning any developers who plan to demonstrate and have RSVP’d. Feel free to bring along short promo videos (on a USB stick) for our video loop.

Update: Anthony will be bringing Bomberman for multi-player wireless DS gaming tonight!