The BGNlab's Game Jam event was the focus of an article in the Brantford Expositor this Sunday, January 10th.
The article, titled "Puzzle makers get their game on", emphasized the rich educational opportunities that the BreakoutEDU game boxes provided the players during the Game Jam event. It applauded the BGNlab for participating in this international event which connected game designers from countries such as Japan, Guatemala, and France in order to create games which solve real world problems.
Game Development and Game Design students Robert Durant, Chris Tenata, Nick LaNave, and Toyin Oteri were featured in the article as one of the Game Jam teams. Abby Goodrum, professor of Digital Media, was also a team member. In their interview with the Expositor, the team highlighted the importance of playtesting games. LaNave is quoted to have said "This is like practicing an instrument, the more you do, the more you learn".
The Game Jam was a great success for the Game Design and Game Development program at Laurier Brantford. This article shows that Brantford has taken notice of the work our students do for the community. Our program aims to continue to partner with local citizens and businesses in order to make the world a better - and more fun - place to be.
There are several sites around the world open to others. If you want to join, contact the people below:
Liberty North High school - Liberty/St. Lawrence, Missouri, North America - slynn@liberty.k12.mo.us ARientation Japan - Kyoto, Japan - erichawkinson@gmail.com Escape Quest - Nampa, Idaho, North America - escapequestidaho@gmail.com Maker Space - Leeds, West Yorkshire, England - L.cable@leedstrinity.ac.uk San Jose State University - San Jose, California - wendy.rouse@sjsu.edu Guatemala - Commercial location (game store/escape room) - pablo@js.com.gt The Crux Escape Room - Hamilton, Ontario - timothy.taylor@thecrux.ca
We also have private sites registered in Oregon, Michigan, New Jersey, and France!
We are hosting a BreakoutEDU game jam on January 9-10. We will be hosting a local version of this in Brantford, but you can host your own site as well! More information is at our Facebook group at
Please note - while families are welcome to come to Brantford, we will ask that those that are underage work on a team with responsible family members.
On October 26, 2015 we ran the world's first Escape Room Unconference, which brought together 60 escape room owners, designers, and enthusiasts to Toronto, Ontario to talk about escapes!
The conference chair was Dr. Scott Nicholson, the director of the Brantford Games Network lab and WLU Brantford professor. The venue was provided by the Transmedia Zone, led by Dr. Richard Lachman, Director of the Transmedia Zone/Transmedia Research Centre and an Associate Professor, Digital Media in the RTA School of Media at Ryerson University. The evening social event was hosted by Riddle Room, an escape room facility and board game cafe in downtown Toronto.
Unconferences are different than traditional conferences, as the topics are generated by the participants, and the day is then a series of discussions There are no formal speakers, as the experts are the attendees. It is a day of sharing information, asking questions, and building networks.
One of the things that is exciting about the Escape Room community is that, unlike most of gaming, there is significant female representation in both designers and players.
The sessions were not recorded, as these were not formal or prepared presentations. Instead, these were discussions around the topics, and if they were being recorded, that would create a barrier to people being as open with their questions and stories. There was great demand for video of the event from the Escape Room community, but small group informa discussions are not appropriate for that type of content creation.
Groups were asked to develop three points from the session and to record notes in a shared Google document from the sessions. Some groups followed this request, while others did not.
The google document with information from the day, which is still being updated, can be found at
At the end of the day, there was a small activity exploring what a full Escape Room Conference might look like, with considerable interest in exploring Niagara Falls as a venue.
Afterwards, we went to Riddle Room where people played escape rooms and continued the discussion for a few hours before escaping back home!
Attendees seemed engaged throughout the day. One attendee commented that the day just flew by, as the pace kept people moving from discussion to discussion. For a nacent field, the unconference is a great model, as there aren't established speakers that people will travel to see.
Monday, January 11, 2016 at 11:27AM