Next Stretch Goal - The PROCJAM Grant

£5,000 | If we meet this stretch goal, we'll award a financial support grant to someone working on a generative project, judged and awarded by a panel of experts from the community. We'll also set aside some travel funding so that the grant recipient can come to a future PROCJAM (2018 onwards) and talk about the cool stuff they did!

PROCJAM is an event celebrating generative software, from programs that stitch intricate artworks to games that simulate the history of fictional worlds. For the past three years the Procedural Generation Jam has taken place every November, bringing in artists, programmers, game developers, designers, and more together to Make Something That Makes Something. Over nine days people make toys, games, experiments, tools, and other wonderful things that generate stuff through code.

But PROCJAM is more than just a jam - we're trying to help grow the generative software community, to introduce people to new ideas, to create resources to help people learn, and to organise communication channels to let people share their ideas. In the past we've been lucky enough to get funding to help with these things, but this year we want to try a new experiment in making PROCJAM sustainable - we want your help to fund this year's event!

Why We Need Funding

Here's what we're planning for this year's PROCJAM to make it the best yet.

A brand new art pack. We'll hire an artist to create a Creative Commons-licensed art pack that's designed to be used in generative projects. Released in time for the jam, and then freely available forever, along with our existing three packs!

Seeds, Issue 2. Last year we made a zine that invited everyone to contribute and share their ideas, dreams and work with the community. Organising and editing this was a huge task - the Kickstarter will pay for an editor to put this zine together for a second year.

Video coverage. PROCJAM doesn't have winners or losers, so to celebrate the hard work everyone puts in we hire game jam expert Jupiter Hadley to make videos about everyone's entries, so that everyone gets a chance in the spotlight!

Tutorials. Our new addition for 2017. We've promised for so long to create original tutorials to help people get started with procedural generation. This year we're planning to hire community members to write tutorials to share their knowledge, and add to our year-round collection of great procedural generation resources.

As usual, we're also planning to host our day of live talks to start the jam. Every year we collect experts from all around the generative software world to give talks to inspire and teach people. Our talks are broadcast live on YouTube and archived for later on. We're still planning to make this year's talks day happen, but there are some unknown factors this year in organising the event, so we're not raising funds for it this time. For this year, we're going to focus on Kickstarting our crucial resources, and fund our talks day separately. 

Backer Rewards

Backing us at any tier means you're helping keep PROCJAM growing and supporting a cool community. We'll include your name in our zine and on our live stream! PROCJAM only happens because it has a kind and supportive community - thanks for being a part of it.

If you back us for £10 or more, you'll receive an amazing reward: The Generative Mixtape, a collection of small experiments and unreleased projects from some amazing people:

• Kate Compton [Tracery, Crystal Code Palace, Techne]
• Tom Betts [Sir! You Are Being Hunted, The Signal From Tölva, In Ruins]
• Strangethink [Joy Exhibition, Secret Habitat, These Monsters]
• Emily Short [Versu, Galatea, The Annals of the Parrigues ]
• Katie Rose Pipkin [Moth Generator, Mirror Lake, Tiny Star Fields]
• Gabriella Barros [Data Adventures, DeepTingle, WikiMysteries]
• And more to be announced!

This mixtape is a unique collection of cool stuff, produced by some wonderful people from the community. You won't want to miss out on it!

Stretch Goals

After we met our initial funding goal, we announced some stretch goals that we'd like to try and hit with additional funding. Here's what we'll do with your funding above our original goal:

£3,000 - A Second Art Pack [STRETCH GOAL MET!]

If we clear this stretch goal we can afford to hire another artist and produce a second art pack! Last year we had both a 2D and a 3D art pack, and the variety was amazing, so I really hope we can do the same this year!

£4,000 - Tutorials, Translated! [STRETCH GOAL MET]

Part of community building is getting resources in place for people, but another part is making sure those resources are accessible. Our plan for this stretch goal is to translate the tutorials we make into new languages. We're looking at translations into Spanish and Arabic with this initial stretch goal.

£5,000 - The PROCJAM Grant

If we meet this stretch goal, we'll award a financial support grant to someone working on a generative project, judged and awarded by a panel of experts from the community. We'll also set aside some travel funding so that the grant recipient can come to a future PROCJAM (2018 onwards) and talk about the cool stuff they did!