Johanna Pirker
Annakaisa Kultima
Christian Gütl
ABSTRACT
Game prototyping projects and various types of game development events teach different skills important for working in industry. This includes aspects such as advancing development and project management skills, but also improved effort estimations, first prototypes for portfolios, and strengthening networking and communication skills. Other prospects of such efforts can also be support for and the strengthening of local industry by connecting and training new talents, opening recruiting possibilities, and building a vivid and strong local developers network. In recent years, we have run different types of game prototyping projects in different settings at Graz University of Technology. These have included traditional digital 48-hour game jams, analog jams, development projects running for some months, and projects with an interdisciplinary and international setting. Each format supports different learning goals and has different potentials to bridge industry and academia. In this paper we summarize different benefits of the different formats and compare their potential to support (computer science) students in learning different aspects important for their future career and discuss general aspects related to game jams with potential for strengthening the local industry.
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