Welcome Dr. Casey O'Donnell

This edition of the NMI Update features one of the new media hires in the Telecommunications Department of the Grady College, Casey O’Donnell. Casey came to UGA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and a distinguished career in the video game industry. Casey is teaching in the NMI this semester and he is helping us develop a game initiative. Too cool, eh?

This DBB (Tues. 1/20, 12:30) Casey O’Donnell

Our guest for this week’s Digital Brown Bag (Tues., 1/20, 12:30p, Room 401, Journalism) is Casey O’Donnell. He is going to talk to us about gaming in general – where it is going and why it is important. And he is going to tell us about a very cool experience that will be going down in the NMI Friday, 1/30 through Sunday, 2/1 – the Global Game Jam (for more info, see below item). There is a venue change for the DBB. This semester we are meeting in room 401 of the Journalism Building just down the hall from the New Media Institute labs. We needed more room. Join us!

Wanna Make a Game? Global Game Jam -- 1/30/09 – by Casey O’Donnell

January 30th through February 1st will be 48 hours that go down in videogame development history as the first ever Global Game Jam ( http://globalgamejam.org/ ). Teams all over the globe will be working to create a fully functioning game – in just two days. UGA and the NMI will be hosting an Athens site (http://globalgamejam.org/sites/athens-ga-usa) and I am producing the event. It should be fun – and crazy.
Athens’ own "Play N Trade" has signed up as a sponsor and we are looking for more. Globally, the GGJ is organized by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and supported by Take-Two Interactive Software,
Inc., Mekensleep Studios and Unity Technologies, maker of Unity3D.
We are looking for people who want to participate – and you don’t have to be a gamer to be one of the team. If you are interested, contact me (Casey O’Donnell -- caseyodonnell@gmail.com).
And watch the NMI Update for more about the Global Game Jam!