A Challenge, and Problem To Be Solved

It was 2017, Las Vegas specifically downtown was downstream for Tony Shei'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 • created the branding and visuals, secured the venue, marketed the event
• 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.