Las Vegas's first ever annual game jam, partnered with game industry titans like Epic Games, was created entirely by Conner Torres with the mission of enlivening the tech development talent pool in Las Vegas, NV.
A Challenge, and Problem To Be Solved
It was 2017. Las Vegas — specifically downtown — was downstream of Tony Hsieh's vision of a new Silicon Valley developer and startup hub, and there was growing interest in hosting a game jam in Las Vegas. But it never moved beyond talk. People assumed attendance would be low, organization would be difficult, and the effort wouldn't be worth it.
At the time, I was running the Demo Day meetup downtown and attending most of the local game dev events. I had visibility into both experienced developers and a much larger group of people who were curious about game development but didn't yet have the skills or confidence to participate.
The Assumption
Everyone was working from the same inherited assumption: a game jam is a 48-hour competitive sprint for experienced developers. That model silently excluded:
- beginners
- people without full-weekend availability
- learning-oriented participants
- curious observers
The Intervention
I created and ran the Las Vegas Summer Game Jam end-to-end:
- designed the format and structure
- created the branding and visuals, secured the venue, marketed the event
- recruited workshop speakers
- secured sponsors (Epic Games, SideFX)
- organized prizes and community voting
- ran the event on-site
I chose not to charge anyone to attend and made the event totally free.
The Outcome
The Las Vegas Summer Game Jam ran successfully three years in a row: 2017, 2018, and 2019. The event became a major moment of coherence for the local game dev community.
Concrete outcomes included:
- new developers entering the ecosystem
- long-term professional connections forming
- attendees later working in the game industry
One attendee decided to pursue game development seriously after the event, went to DigiPen, and now works on Minecraft. They learned the basics for the first time at this game jam.
