Cary, N.C. - January 28, 2009 – Icarus Studios, a leading provider of white-label massively multi-player online games, virtual worlds, and serious games for major entertainment, corporate, and government clients, will be hosting the Triangle assembly of the Global Game Jam (GGJ) this weekend in its state-of-the-art motion capture studio.
 
From 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 30 through 5 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 1, more than 1000 college students, faculty and industry members from around the world will be participating online and join together for a 48-hour game building marathon popularly known as a Game Jam.   The Triangle gathering will consist of 40-45 local game developers, all communicating and competing with gamers worldwide.
 
“We are very excited to be hosting the Triangle’s physical headquarters for first ever Global Game Jam in our facilities,” said Jim Hettinger, chief executive officer of Icarus Studios. “Never before have game developers around the world been able to collaborate and come together creatively on such a massive scale, and we are proud to add several members of our team to participate in the local gathering.”
This is the first time the Triangle game development community has been a part of such an event. While individual and regional Game Jams have been held in the last few years, never has there been one of such massive size and scope as the Global Game Jam. Fallen Earth, LLC, creator of the self-titled post-apocalyptic MMO Fallen Earth, will also be sponsoring the event.

GGJ was the brainstorm of Susan Gold, director of Game Program Review and chair of the Education Special Interest Group of the International Game Developers Association. “It is all about the games and the ideas that form them. I was looking for a project that explored the incredible innovative and collaborative nature of video games,” says Gold. "I wanted to create the Global Game Jam as a unique idea space and an amazing experiment in creativity.”
 
After the Game Jam occurs this weekend, the GGJ Web site will host all of the games for free download and play. Players and developers will also have the ability to rate each other’s games. The site will allow viewers to look at the source code of the games as an educational tool. All intellectual property created during the GGJ will be protected under a Create Commons license. During the upcoming Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, held March 23-27, 2009, the GGJ will share the most innovative games at the education summit.

For more information on the Global Game Jam, including a list of locations, and a sample schedule for the three days at each site, visit at http://globalgamejam.org.