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Welcome to the #molyjam2012

What started as a joke has become a big, wonderful, super crazy thing.

No Caption Provided
Will Molyneux himself make an appearance? That's a good question. A really good question.
Will Molyneux himself make an appearance? That's a good question. A really good question.

Double Fine gameplay programmer Anna Kipnis jokingly tweeted on Tuesday that it’s crazy no one has organized a game jam based on the ideas of faux Peter Molyneux Twitter account @petermolydeux.

In response, I asked the world to make it happen. Kipnis told me I should make it happen. Then, Chris Remo of Idle Thumbs said he wanted to make this happen. We all thought it should happen.

So, it’s happening.

Starting on the evening of March 30 (Friday) until the evening of April 1 (Sunday), San Francisco, New York, Melbourne, Brighton and other locations will participate in a 48-hour game jam themed around the preposterous, hilarious ideas from @petermolydeux.

The game jam is officially called What Would Molydeux?, and has a constantly evolving, updating website at www.whatwouldmolydeux.com. If it’s broken, that’s because we’re trying to fix it!

A game jam is where a bunch of artists, programmers, designers, musicians and others come together to produce a video game in a very, very short period of time. I’m helping organize this game jam alongside Kipnis, Remo, Game Developer Magazine’s Brandon Sheffield, and many others around the world. The only reason this is happening is because so many people are working so hard together, and this dumb joke has turned into something amazing.

And if you’re somehow unaware, @petermolydeux is a hilarious parody of Molyneux and his often grandiose game ideas. Even though some of the mystery has been lifted, it’s still totally hilarious.

The biggest game jam is happening around San Francisco, but there are satellite game jams in Melbourne, Brighton, New York City, Seattle, London, Los Angeles, Montreal, and more are being added every day. If you want to put together your own local game jam, keep watching the website, as there's a FAQ that's being continually updated with details. We don’t want anyone to feel excluded, and you don’t need to be near a big city to participate.

Small plans have become big plans, and those plans keep getting bigger. I can’t share them all...yet. There is much more to come. Since I’m part of the team, you can assume Giant Bomb will be there, too. Somehow, anyway. I’m only vague because so much of this is being invented on-the-fly, and we’re nailing down logistics day by day.

Also, I've had the Space Jam music in my head the whole time I wrote this. #molyjam2012, everybody!

Patrick Klepek on Google+