The Global Game Jam, born from the International Game Developer's Education Special Interest Group, was held last weekend, Jan. 30 through Feb. 1, in more than a dozen countries around the world.

Thousands of college students, faculty, and video game industry members and the general public joined together in their respective cities and college towns for a 'round-the-clock, 48-hour, video game building extravaganza, more casually known as a game jam.

When the clock struck 5 p.m. in the local time zone, each regional group kicked off its event and announced the theme of the challenge.

The Global Game Jam was the brainchild of Susan Gold, faculty and international development manager for the Master's of Digital Media Program in Vancouver, and chair of the Education SIG of the IGDA.

"I wanted to find a project that explored the incredible creative collaborative nature of video games," Gold said in a prepared statement prior to the event. "I thought a global experience would really show the strength of the game development community by having a project that crossed all cultural boundaries and everyone could participate simultaneously."

GameCareerGuide has collected these postcards from a few sites that took part in the Game Jam.