As anyone who is a regular reader of TouchArcade probably knows, we took part in Train Jam 2018 leading up to our week at GDC 2018 last month. If you’re unfamiliar, Train Jam began five years ago and is the brainchild of developer and all around game industry bright spot Adriel Wallick and it tasks developers traveling to GDC to create a game in the 50+ hours it takes to ride an Amtrak train from Chicago to San Francisco where GDC takes place. The jam has only grown each year since it began, and this year’s Train Jam sold out an entire train’s worth of people, which equals roughly 340 riders. The folks from VICE caught wind of Train Jam and decided to tag along for the ride too. The result is this 6-minute video which captures some of the people jamming on the train and their stories, some of the gorgeous scenery, and the all-around great vibes of the entire event.
The idea is simple: Get on a train in Chicago and program a video game from start to finish in the 54 hours it takes you to get to San Francisco. https://t.co/nVOsLONbdp
— VICE News (@vicenews) April 4, 2018
While the above video is a really cool snippet of Train Jam 2018, it definitely doesn’t encompass everything, and in all honestly you could easily make a 90-minute documentary about the event and still not be able to touch on everything. Eli attended Train Jam last year and gushed so much about it he convinced me to give it a shot this year. I was hesitant, as I live near San Francisco and so I’d be flying all the way to Chicago just to ride back on a train to where I came from, which seems a bit absurd. Also, GDC by itself is such an exhausting event to cover that tacking on an extra 5 days to allow for Train Jam wasn’t something I was overly thrilled about. However, boy am I glad I listened to Eli. Train Jam is one of the best things I’ve done in my life, and I’m going to try my best to be able to go each and every year. If the above video looks like fun to you then keep an eye out for tickets going on sale for next year’s Train Jam likely in early 2019.
