March 27, 2018 - News Post

It’s here!!! After 2 years of waiting, the Cartoon Network Game Jam documentary is out!

Game Jam? Documentary? Cartoon Network?

Yeah. A while back, I flew out to Portland to participate in a 48-hour "Game Jam" hackathon. The whole thing was recorded.

44 teams competed against one another to build the ultimate OK K.O.! gaming experience. At the time, OK K.O.! was a relatively unknown property, so this was our first exposure to it.

OK K.O.! was created by Ian Jones-Quartey, a former struggling web comic genius who has decided to waste his time making beloved and popular animated cartoons for Cartoon Network instead. He has a life in his eyes that I've never seen before in an artist, something called "happiness". I obviously felt sorry for him.

The event was a hell of a lot of fun. Great people, great conversations, great games.

For the marathon of code, art, and 3D modeling, my team consisted of myself, Adam McCurdy, and John Williamson. We had a few tense moments, but the three of us worked pretty well together. You can see our game briefly at the 18-second mark (RC cars driving through a convenience store).

Keen-eyed observers can also spot an exhausted, bespectacled Jeff in a few shots throughout the video... But you're on your own for that. I was actually pretty frightened of this documentary's release. Why? Well, I set a single goal for the weekend: Do not embarrass myself on camera. I didn't meet that goal.

I've humiliated myself before. I have a bad habit of conducting on-camera interviews at hackathons, after working nonstop for 24-48 hours. The results are... not pretty. Thankfully, no one wants to see that. I only appear in about 3 seconds of total footage. Come to think of it, almost no one in this documentary appears for more than a few seconds. Hm... guess I worried for nothing.

Despite the cameras, the work itself was frantic, frenzied, and fun. We set realistic goals, made up a schedule on the first day, and actually managed to stick with it through the end. I'm quite proud of the end product. While my team didn't win, we were one of the runner-ups. Not too shabby.

I've never been to an event quite like this. I've attended plenty of hackathons, but never seen such creativity, excitement, and quality projects. I learned a lot and made new friends. If Cartoon Network ever does another one of these, let me know. I'd love to embarrass myself on camera again.

-Jeff