Gamers buzzed with adrenaline leading up to the kickoff of a 48-hour competition where participants developed an original video game as a team or individual.
Electronic Game Developer’s Society, known as EGaDS! hosted the Texas Game Jam from Sept. 26 to Sept. 28 in the Gates-Dell Complex. Game development enthusiasts with diverse backgrounds and skill sets came to participate in the jam, which involved planning, designing and programming a video game in one weekend.
According to EGaDS! President Zayaan Rahman, Texas Game Jam is now the largest student-run collegiate game jam in the country with over 400 participant sign ups and 89 game submissions.
“The gaming experience is really unique,” Rahman said. “It’s very exciting and fast-paced, throwing ideas at each other and just seeing what sticks. Eventually, the hope is that you will come to a consensus on what concept you want to do for your game.”
EGaDS! unveiled the theme “Out of Time” at their kick-off ceremony last Friday, met with clamorous applause from participants. After the ceremony, participants split off into their groups or alone to start brainstorming ideas and coming up with a plan for the weekend.
Matthew Moehling, computer science freshman and Texas Game Jam programmer, said his team initially faced challenges as they grappled with where to begin on the substantial project.
“It already from the very start wasn’t working properly,” Moehling said. “But then we worked a lot. We left the GDC at like four or five in the morning that night, me and the other programmer, and I was like, ‘okay, maybe we can actually do this.’”
Compromised entirely of first time jammers, Moehling’s team built a game called “Oh, Robot Pirates!” that features a challenge where players have to save their spaceship before it explodes.
“I had never worked with other people on a game before and in such a time constraint, on a random theme … so it was very different, but it was awesome,” Moehling said.
The game development process involves working under tight time constraints to write code and design elements of an experience, such as music, sound effects and visuals that bring the game to life. Participants also learn how to work with people from different disciplines, gaining collaboration skills that are applicable in workplace settings.
Michael Cano designed a full soundtrack and audio effects for “Oh, Robot Pirates!”
“(The programmers) know exactly how they want this game, and I was a collaborator on that too,” Cano said. “It was up to me to listen to exactly what they wanted and then do what they can’t do, which is create music for their environment and create sound effects that they don’t even think that they need.”
Winners will be announced this weekend in various categories, including best overall, best sound and people’s choice award.
