One Laptop Per Child announces game jam

by John Bardinelli { May 25th 2007 at 5:28PM }

The non-profit group One Laptop Per Child recently announced a three-day game jam (which has nothing to do with marmalade, jelly, or other spreadable treats) scheduled for June 8-10 in Massachusetts. Hundreds of developers, educators, writers, and artists will collaborate to create open source educational games for new XO laptop. The resulting source code will be released on SourceForge for other programmers to tinker with.

The low-powered, inexpensive XO computer has been designed with the goal of providing every child in the world access to modern educational materials. Currently the XO is planned to be distributed in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Libya, Nigeria, and Rwanda, with more countries in the future.

Tags: gamejam, laptop, nonprofit, opensource, pc

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

NeverSage @ May 25th 2007 5:40PM

I think this is awesome. Best part is, these can run doom.

Rubang B @ May 25th 2007 5:44PM

This almost makes me wish I was in an education-deprived third world country. These kids are going to grow up to be open-source kings and make today's modding communities look like chumps. They're even getting an open-source SimCity. And these things can stand rain, and they're solarpowered. They're incredible.

redzoo @ May 25th 2007 6:10PM

I have a moderately capable PC that could run rings around this and a room full of consoles, yet I still want this little thing for some inexplicable reason.

Blake @ May 25th 2007 6:17PM

@ redzoo
3 words: Shiny and Colourful!

ChaosEntity17 @ May 25th 2007 7:43PM

It's funny if you think about it. Kids from third world countries will be using this awesome stuff, while here in the US, we're still using the 15lb. textbooks. Does the word irony mean anything to YOU?

bobartig @ May 25th 2007 8:07PM

@Rubang B: solar powered?

I still want one as basically an eReader. It's got several times the hardware, better software (at least better options), although no e-ink screen. I'll accept that trade-off for the added web browsing.

Hey, your code jame will go even better if developers could get their hands on the hardware before hand (I just want an excuse for them to sell me one).

Howbout this: you let me buy one, and I'll program a game for it. Granted, it'll be a text adventure (and a crummy one at that), since that's about all my programming knowledge can handle, but it'll be a start for both of us.