More than 36,000 people in 93 countries came together Jan. 29 to 31 to participate in the Global Game Jam, creating more than 6,800 gaming prototypes in only 48 hours. More than 70 of those participants gathered at New England Institute of Technology’s East Greenwich Campus creating nearly 20 2D and 3D games.

The group included current students, alumni, professional developers and instructors working together to come up with various types of game play in an extremely short period of time.

The Global Game Jam, a volunteer run organization, began in January of 2009 and initially had 1,600 participants and saw 370 new games as a result. It has since seen incredible growth.

Not unlike musicians, the jam brings programmers and designers together to play around with different concepts in hopes of coming up with a great creative idea. The short time period is in hopes of encouraging quick and creative thinking around a specific theme; this year’s theme was “ritual.”

All of these experimental games are then uploaded to the Global Jams website and have the possibility of gaining attention and with enough traction, any game can also be picked up by a major publisher and be fully developed for commercial sale.

Jordan Dubreuil, a game development instructor at NEIT and co-director of International Game Developer Association of Rhode Island, helped to coordinate the Global Game Jam at NEIT.

This is the fifth year the school has hosted the event and although none of the previous games have received national attention from the Global Game Jam, Dubreuil was excited for this year, hoping some of the games developed over the weekend will receive some popularity.

The Global Game Jam is not, in and of itself, a competition, although some sites host it as such. NEIT does not run the Jam as a competition, but rather has a presentation and discussion on each of the games at the end of the 48 hours.

“There aren’t prizes or anything like that,” he said. “We do this just because we are passionate about this.”

He said especially for students, the Global Game Jam is an opportunity to garner real world experience in rapid prototyping as well as team building and communication skills.

For recent graduates and alumni, he said the Global Jam is a time to “refine their skills and hone their craft.”

Jeremy Simons, one of the competitors who graduated from NEIT ‘s game development program in October, said, “This is a really good opportunity to create something from start to finish and it’s a great addition to any portfolio.”

This is his third Global Game Jam and he appreciates the challenge in the short timeframe for work and the ability to create absolutely anything, rather than something “dictated” by work or school.

“Some games take more than three years to come together,” Dubreuil said. “The 48 hour restriction really holds their feet to the fire. The constraints forces them to get creative, it’s a chance to show off their work.”

Simons said that has become mainstream. Especially with mobile devices, games have become extremely accessible and there is a need for developers to “fill the market.” The Global Game Jam is just another way for interested developers to get their ideas out there and for major publishers to find new talent.

“There are no restrictions. Everything is open to interpretation. This is all about inspiration,” Dubreuil said.

For more information on the Global Game Jam, or to see any of the thousands of uploaded games from this weekend, visit www.globalgamejam.org.