Hello! It’s that time of year again where we all put on our conductor’s hats and think about how much fun it would be to put hundreds of developers into a train and hold a game jam with no access to wi-fi!
Event Information
Train Jam 2018 will be taking place from March 15, 2018 until March 17, 2018.
As always, we will be departing from Chicago’s Union Station and arriving in Emeryville, CA, which is just outside of San Francisco, California. Amtrak will provide shuttle buses for Train Jam attendees to complete the rest of the journey into downtown San Francisco.
We will be be renting a space in Chicago on March 14, 2018 for attendees of Train Jam 2018 to pick up their information packet, hang out, and meet each other – we will announce more information about the location to registered attendees closer to the date.
Thanks to the folks over at GDC, we have been provided with a booth in the expo hall of GDC to show off all of the Train Jam 2018 creations. We will be located in the North hall at booth number N5012.
The Train
Continuing our partnership with Amtrak, we have been approved to rent out the entire California Zephyr again for Train Jam 2018. In addition, Amtrak has added one more sleeper car onto our train, which brings our maximum attendee capacity up to 340 people! This means that our train now consists of three coach class cars, three sleeper cars, one restaurant car, and two observation cars- which is A LOT of train cars.
The room and seat types that we will have available for Train Jam 2018 are as follows: coach class seats, superliner roomettes, family style bedrooms, wheelchair accessible bedrooms, and deluxe bedrooms. Please refer to our FAQ to find out more information about what these different rooms and seats include.
Diversity
We’re happy to announce that we have a number of tickets for Train Jam 2018, travel stipends, and GDC passes available for developers from under-represented territories around the world as well as those from under-represented genders. We have opened up our application process for both of our official diversity initiatives, and these applications will be open until 11:59pm Sunday December 3, 2017 PT. Recipients of travel assistance and/or a Train Jam 2018 ticket will receive notice by 11:59pm Monday December 11, 2017 PT.
The links to these two applications can be found below:
In addition to Train Jam’s two initiatives, we’re excited to announce that we have partnered with the AbleGamers charity, who will be sponsoring a number of developers with disabilities to attend Train Jam 2018 and GDC. AbleGamers is an amazing charity organization that advocates for accessibility in games and provides assistive devices to gamers with disabilities. You can apply for the AbleGamers sponsored tickets here.
We want to give a special thanks to our sponsors who make our diversity initiatives possible. Thank you Amazon, Young Horses, Vlambeer, AbleGamers, Brace Yourself Games, and our numerous anonymous sponsors who are all helping us continue to achieve our goals of creating a truly diverse and unique experience!
Students
Returning for a fourth year is our Student Ambassador program. Train Jam co-organizer John Lindvay has been working with various universities around the world to ensure that Train Jam 2018 is full of talented students. If you are a student or professor and are interested in hearing more about how your school can be a part of our Student ambassador program, please reach out to students@trainjam.com.
In addition to our Student Ambassador Program, we’re excited to announce that Bekah and Adam Saltsman, of Finji, will be heading up the official mentorship program for Train Jam 2018. Bekah and Adam will be working closely with our more experienced attendees, to ensure that students and new developers have access to a wide range of knowledge, assistance, and advice throughout the jam.
Public Ticket Sale
The public sale of Train Jam 2018’s tickets will start at 4:00pm Tuesday December 12, 2017 Central European Time. Here is a handy reference of what that means around the world! You will be able to find a link to purchase tickets on the front page of trainjam.com once sales go live.
Tickets will sell out fast, so be ready! We limit all ticket purchases to 2 per order.
Sponsors
As always, we have an amazing lineup of sponsors who are helping us continue to make Train Jam the best it can be year after year. Without our sponsors, Train Jam would simply not be able to exist. Please check out our list of sponsors below, and give them a big thanks! Words cannot describe how much our sponsors mean to us – Thank you, sponsors <3
A Personal Note
It’s been an incredibly busy year for both John and I, with John and his wife becoming parents (times two!) and me preparing to set off on the adventure of marriage with my partner of the last four years. The two of us just wanted to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has helped and supported us over the years, as we work to make an event that we both feel is truly special.