By Erasmus Baxter
You have 36 hours to create a video game from scratch. Quick, what do you come up with? That is the premise of the Game Jam held by Western’s Game Design Club.
This quarter’s Jam will take place from November 19 at 10 a.m. to November 20 at 10 p.m. This will be the fourth Jam the club has held. Last year they held one Game Jam each quarter and plan to do so again this year.
In past years, working on teams of one to four people, students have made games that ranged from puzzle platformers to three-way western stand-off simulators. Each team is assigned a theme from five that the club decides upon ahead of time.
Game Design Club Vice President Wyatt Chapman said that one of the best parts of the whole event is seeing what themes people decide on.
“It means the themes we’re using are picked by the people using them,” he said. “At least one or two are the ones you voted for in the first place.”
In past years, the themes have included “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature,” and “Holy Shoot! It’s real flippin’ huge and it’s coming straight for us.”
One game that won a past jam was based on the theme “sightless,” Chapman said.
“All you can see is a bunch of lines,” he said. “When an enemy would make a step the waves would undulate. You’re seeing sound waves.”
The event is free and open to all people, including non-students. While it is helpful to have experience with game design and computer programming, it is not necessary. Teams also need people to make music and create art.
“Games require a little bit from everyone,” Chapman said.
One of things that makes game design so inclusive and accessible is that it builds on participants’ unique strengths. At a past Jam, one team had a creative writing major so they made a game that was technologically simple but had great story and art. Technically, the games don’t even have to be computerized, a person could make a board game if they wanted to.
The club has worked with Academic Technology & User Services (ATUS) to get game creation software installed on the computers they use so anybody can use it.
A team of freshmen who had never made a game before taught themselves how to use a game engine over the course of a weekend. Chapman said that learning is part of the experience. To foster this, there is no prize for the makers of the winning game. The real prize is what you create.
“I want people to help each other,” Chapman said. “If I create a competitive edge I don’t want it to stress people out and have them not help each other.”
They spend the last hour of the Jam showing off their different games. The glitches can be the best part of the game, Chapman said.
“Not everyone made a complete thing, but everybody made something,” he said.
Chapman estimates that around 25 people will attend this Jam.
“Every time, they draw a nice crowd, so we’re gonna keep doing them.”
Check out previous Game Jam projects and even download the games at https://itch.io/jam/wwu-game-jam-s16.