Two days, one game

“The best part of the experience was the camaraderie among teammates.”

-Ed Greig ’23, MFA ’24

In early September, I promised my friend Brien Rondeau ’24, president of the Clark branch of the International Game Developers Association (IDGA), that I would participate in a game jam before the semester ended. Game jams are events in which a team tries to build a video game from scratch, usually within 48 hours, and the IDGA typically holds three jams per semester.

As the semester inched toward final exams week, I remembered I had a promise to uphold. I trudged over to the Center for Media, Arts, and Design on Friday, Dec. 1, and saw excited students gathered in groups.  My reluctance to spend my weekend on campus, trading studying time for extracurricular learning, quickly dissipated — what I experienced was the most fun you can have in a computer lab for 48 hours.

Teams formed and mingled in the common area on the second floor. I organized a team before the weekend with some classmates from Game Studio and we scoped out the competition. Teams mulled over creative concepts with furrowed brows, held lively discussions, and made rudimentary scribbles on loose papers. Game jams have two rules: 1. Complete your work within the given time constraints; and 2. Abide by the theme, which could be a word or phrase that must be fully incorporated into the game. Teams can interpret themes however they want as long as a clear connection is made.

At 5 p.m., organizers announced “off the wall” as the weekend’s theme.

We broke off to lab 206 (the best lab due to its natural sunlight) and immediately started deliberating on how to pick apart the theme. We had music on to stir the creative juices, rock and hip-hop mostly. We sat on tables, feet swinging just above the floor, and listened to each other’s thoughts. Initially, we were stuck on the idea of a sports game such as dodgeball, and one of my teammates suggested taking inspiration from mini golf. We decided to interpret the theme quite literally and design a game where players take things off the walls. We began concepting interesting mechanics such as traps and a time trial, all while keeping in mind the limited time we would have to build the game.

Our final product was “Stroke of Mischief,” a game in which a thief steals works of art from a dimly lit museum while dodging obstacles such as tripwires and security guards. Players must strategize to ensure the thief escapes each level before the clock ticks down or risk getting caught.

We labored throughout Friday evening and left the lab at midnight. Our work resumed at 10 a.m. on Saturday. Donuts fueled us through the morning as we polished some technical bugs from the night before.

We paused around 6 p.m. for a team dinner. On our walk to Saigon restaurant in the cold winter air, my teammates were excitedly talking about what to work on next. It was at that moment I realized I didn’t have a single regret about sacrificing my Saturday in favor of more work. The best part of the experience was the camaraderie among teammates. We chose to sacrifice our weekend to make a fun game together and not only did we learn new skills, we all really enjoyed the time together. We didn’t leave the lab until almost 2 a.m.

Becker School of Design & Technology professors Elliot Epstein and Michael Swartz judged the final submissions on Sunday at 5 p.m. We came in second place, falling to an awesome team who made a spooky game called “Menticide,” where the player had to create walls to stop evil creatures from attacking them.

It was amazing to look back on everything we accomplished during the weekend. I was impressed with how well we did given the time restraint. When the event was over, our entire team returned to the lab to continue working on and polishing our final build. That speaks volumes about how much students enjoy game jams.

The next game jam is happening Jan. 19. I encourage anyone interested to come and participate. You might just be pleasantly surprised — I know I was.