Digital Games Development marathon at LIT-Tipperary

Tipperary has a long history associated with the digital games industry. Prior to the invention of home consoles, Ireland - from a base in Tipperary, was Europe's foremost manufacturer of arcade machines, producing gaming cabinets for Atari Inc. The arcades machines of the seventies were a favoured pastime of the very first gaming generation. Iconic games such as Asteroids are an example of the many classics manufactured and distributed from Ireland. 

Games Design and Development students from LIT-Tipperary collaborated last weekend with students from University of Limerick and IT Carlow, to devise and develop digital games based on specific theme. During this 48 hour game development marathon weekend, innovative games were produced and shared with designers worldwide via the Global Game Jam network. LIT-Tipperary's Thurles campus is host to Ireland's Global Game Jam site. Daniel Keohan a student at UL, and attending his first GGJ said "this has been an excellent opportunity to collaborate with peers in higher education in the area I hope to start a career in". Participants worked in parallel with game designers located in cities such as Bangkok, Moscow and New-York. All sites developed games based on a common theme which in 2012 is 'Ouroboros', an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. Building games to tight deadlines results in innovative and fun gameplay and inspired by a broad theme.  Sean Farrell, who also attends UL said, "In 48 hours I learned numerous new skills that I'll use daily from now on". 

Pictured: Cormac O Conner (LIT Tipperary) holding the microphone surrounded by (from l to r) James Patton, Mallow College, Daire O'Mahony, LIT Tipperary, Karolis Pekus, LIT Tipperary, Stephen O'Sullivan, UL, Daniel Keoghan, UL