Volta Labs in Halifax next weekend will be the Nova Scotian base for the Global Game Jam, or GGJ, a worldwide weekend event that unites creative minds to develop games.

The 48-hour event will give participants a chance to develop video games, or more traditional amusements like board and card games.

The event is set to begin at 5 pm on Jan. 29 at the facility at the Maritime Centre office on Barrington St. Anyone 16 years old or older can join the event and the registration is available here.

“Jammers can form teams or join existing ones on Friday and even sleep overnight at Volta to get their games finished,” said Melody Pardoe, Executive Director of Volta. “It’s a great way for anyone to make something fun with friends or meet others in the development, design and gaming community.”

GGJ is the largest multi-site game jam in the world, and this year it will be the largest in its six-year history. Last year’s event attracted more than 28,000 registered participants in 78 countries. At the 2015 GGJ in Halifax, eight games were submitted to the international GGJ website. Creative commons license and IP rights protect every game created at the event so jammers can keep their game to share and develop after GGJ.

The event begins on Jan. 29 at 5 p.m. in each time zone, beginning in New Zealand and ending in Hawaii. Every time zone is given the Jam’s yearly theme when the event begins. Each team must brainstorm and develop a game around the theme within 48 hours.

“Participating in Global Game Jam immersed me into the realm of game design for the very first time,” said Alex Gillis, 17 year-old founder of Bitness.io and winner of the Startup Canada Young Entrepreneur Award. “I worked as a designer on animations and sprites for my team's game. However, over the course of the event I learned new skills such as Unity development and programming in C Sharp.”

Single tickets cost $5 and team tickets cost $10. The ticket price includes the cost of food and drinks for the whole weekend.