The MIT Game Lab is hosting the Global Game Jam for 2013 at our new location in Building 26. We are partnering with our friends the Learning Games Network and Education Arcade at our location to make games and game prototypes for entertainment, learning, and social change.

At the MIT Game Lab, we have been making games with purpose, that go beyond pure entertainment, since 2007. At this year’s Global Game Jam, we would like to share this expertise with our jammers. This is the perfect chance to gain experience in making these kinds of games. If you’ve got experience making games with an entertainment focus, you can take on the added challenge of making a game that is both entertaining and serves an additional purpose, either to assist with learning (say STEM skills like math or physics or maybe philosophy or writing!) or to bring a social change impact (bringing attention to current events like the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, marriage equality in the US, or any other social issue you feel strongly about).

To help with this, you’ll have staff from the MIT Game Lab, Education Arcade, and Learning Games Network on hand to ask questions and to help guide you through the process of selecting your topic and applying game design principles to it. Games that follow these constraints will be submitted to Games for Change, a non-profit that focuses on these kinds of games, for a chance to be promoted during their 10th Annual Games for Change Festival. More details about this will come out in the weeks ahead!

These are optional constraints – we will still be a site where you can make whatever kind of game you like!