The 48-hour Global Game Jam has started! And here’s my “How to Make a Game in 48 Hours” keynote if anyone’s curious.  It began first in New Zealand, and then as the Earth rotates, new jams pop up each hour in each new time zone, beginning at 5pm (each local time) Friday evening, with the last local jam beginning in San Francisco / LA.  It was created and organized by the ever amazing Susan Gold, more info on the jam’s official site here – you can also view each location streaming live. Right now all I see is a bunch of kittens. -Kyle

Update: Several people have asked about the games I showed in the video.  The majority of the fast clips were from the Experimental Gameplay Project. The “tree game” is a little toy called “Big Vine” which you can get here. “Illegal Communication” by Cactus is here and highly recommended. Gish is everywhere and needs no introduction.

Thanks to everyone who wrote in asking about a soundtrack! I probably never would have put this together otherwise. I spent this weekend pulling together all the audio, reconstructing some of the older songs, and “remastering” them all like they do to Snow White DVD’s. The final soundtrack is about 49 minutes long, and all free here. (another mirror is here) Hope you like it! Kyle

Update: Wow, that killed the server fast. Would anybody be able to mirror this file? I’ll try to set up a mirror or two too. If you have one, post a link below in the comments!

Update 2: I just created a temporary mirror here, and provided 4 more download locations. If anyone knows how to create a torrent, please go ahead and send me the link and I’ll post it!

Update 3: The multi-talented Sebastian Wolff has created sheet music for some of the tracks. More info on the forum topic.

Good news everyone!

• The Linux version of World of Goo is well into beta. Thanks to Maks Verver for helping us with the port and running the beta program. He’s also the genius behind the translation project, and the tower visualizer.
• John Walker did an interview with us for Eurogamer, and The Reticule has a sexy new redesign and has a multipart tea time with us here.
• The Global Game Jam is at the end of this month! Anyone can participate. The idea is for talented and curious indie game people to come together from all around the world, to their respective locations (listed here on the left), and make a game, all on their own.  From the site: The global Game Jam will start at 5:00PM Friday, January 30, 2009 through 5:00PM Sunday, February 1, 2009, (all times local). All participants in the Global Game Jam will be constrained by the same rules and limitations, with each time zone having one distinct constraint.
  Should be a fun time. I highly recommend participating in a game jam, especially if you’ve never done it before. I’ll be keynoting it via a short video message. My topic (tentatively) is “How to Make a Game in 48 Hours”.