2011 continues to be a great year for gamers and game developers as our friends at the Global Game Jam have officially begun the GGJ 2011 event. The Global Game Jam brings together game dev professionals, students, and educators to collaborate on gaming projects in just 48 hours.

This year, the event is kicking off in New Zealand, and taking place over the weekend of January 30th in 170+ locations over 44 countries with 4000 registered participants worldwide. In addition to digital games, board game design and non-digital games have been added to the mix. GGJ 2011 will also feature keynote speakers from the gaming industry including Katamari Damacy & Noby Noby Boy creator Keita Takahashi.

For updates about the event, you can follow along their Twitter @globalgamejam and search for #ggj11. You can still sign up as participants for this weekend’s Global Game Jam at sites all over the world. Check out some locations near you: http://globalgamejam.org/Locations.