Earlier this year a group of developers made the best of a multi-day train ride from Chicago to attend GDC in San Francisco by participating in the first-ever
Train Jam, a 52-hour game jam held aboard an Amtrak train with limited connectivity.
Gamasutra editor-in-chief Kris Graft rode along and
wrote about the experience, which seems to have been successful enough that organizer and independent game developer Adriel Wallick is planning to do it again next year.
Tickets for the second annual Train Jam, which will once again take place across 52 hours on a train from Chicago to San Francisco in advance of
GDC 2015, are expected to go on sale today through the
Train Jam website.
Those who buy a ticket need only show up at Chicago's Union Station on Thursday, February 26th. A theme for the jam will be announced at that point, and developers working alone or in teams will have until the train arrives in San Francisco on Saturday, February 28th to build a game around that theme.
What makes this especially interesting is that connectivity options are limited on the train; one of the event sponsors will be providing a limited number of Wi-Fi cellular hotspots, but the train itself offers no Internet access and developers may have to make do with the resources they bring with them while passing through isolated parts of the country.
The inaugural outing spawned more than a dozen
Train Jam games, and all games that come out of next year's event will be exhibited in a special Train Jam booth at GDC 2015.
In addition, Train Jam organizers are launching a new Student Ambassador Program aimed at guaranteeing interested game development students access to the event; you can read more about the program and get further details about the jam itself on the
Train Jam website.
