For those of you who may not know, the Global Game Jam is a worldwide game-off where hundreds of indie game developers will try to rapidly create games based on set criteria in just about 48 hours. This, if you couldn’t tell, is difficult as hell to pull off, but usually leads to a bunch of interesting games. It’s set to go from Jan. 30th to Feb. 1st, in which time the Game Jam will roll over time zones and get the developers cracking. If you’ve played a number of indie games released this year (such as Braid), you know what kinds of minds are going to be fueling this. On the same note, a worldwide keynote will be broadcast for the Game Jam by none other than Kyle Gabler, developer of indie game World of Goo (which, if you haven’t heard, is very very good). The description per the site:

In a Game Jam, participants come together to make video games. Each participant works in a small team on a complete game project over the course of a limited time period, usually over a weekend. With such a small time frame, the games tend to be innovative and experimental. The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the first of its kind: a game Jam that takes place in the same 48 hours all over the world! The global Game Jam will start at 5:00PM Friday, January 30, 2009 through 5:00PM Sunday, February 1, 2009, (all times local). All participants in the Global Game Jam will be constrained by the same rules and limitations, with each time zone having one distinct constraint.

Look forward to more coverage and information about the Game Jam as we learn it, or head over to the site to get it all straight from the horse’s mouth.