'Game Jam' development fest for OLPC

Stephen Withers
Monday, 28 May 2007 04:49

Business IT - Technology

A weekend 'Game Jam' aims to generate games software for the One Laptop Per Child XO platform.

To be held at Olin College (near Boston, USA) beginning June 8, the three day event hopes to attract game developers along with specialists in related areas such as design and education.

The event will be organised into four tracks, three of which reflect a particular aspect of the XO's hardware (mesh networking, camera and tablet mode), while the fourth will address the intention that XO users will be able to create their own games as well as being able to modify educational games as part of the learning process.

The software produced during the Game Jam will be released under the GPL and made available on SourceForge, so even those unable to attend the event will have a chance to contribute to the further development of the projects emerging from Game Jam.

While the original OLPC goal was to produce a device that could be supplied for $US100, the price has risen to $US175. Orders for over 2.5 million units have been received.