This past weekend, the DU Game Development Society brought together over 50 developers, artists, musicians and game enthusiasts to conceptualize, develop and program games entirely from scratch in 48 hours, following a common theme.

“Game jams are a great way to build experience and a portfolio, and also are a great experience for all skill levels,” said Ian Warren, a fifth-year student at DU and current president of the Game Development Society. 

The Global Game Jam is an event open to anyone who wishes to join either in person or online, but communities are divided by sites where the games get uploaded. The participants at the jam site then split into self-appointed teams based on similar creative visions for the games.  

At DU, members of the Game Development Society took over the Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) on Friday night. This year’s theme was “bubbles,” which took many by surprise.

“I certainly didn’t expect it; they are usually a little more amorphous, more open to interpretation, but overall, I liked it and it made for some great games,” said Fletch Gunderson, a fourth-year game development major.

During the 48 hours, the study rooms on the lower level of ECS were taken over by the groups, which included current students, alumni and greater Colorado community members, who worked tirelessly to create several different games. The number of members per group varied, as well as their position within the developing team. While some groups had as little as one person, others had over ten members. 

“We’re one of only two jam sites in Colorado, so we get a ton of people from outside of DU involved, and students get to interact with the wider game development community, which is awesome,” said Warren. 

Most importantly, getting developers from different backgrounds is paramount for a successful jam.

“We met Brad Taylor at the last DU Arcade who teaches at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, and he encouraged a lot of students from there to attend. They usually have a lot of artists and not enough programmers and we have the opposite problem, so it was a really perfect matchup,” Warren added.

The DU Game Development leaders provided food and drinks throughout the event, catering pizza, donuts, soft drinks and coffee for the duration of the event, and even stayed in the ECS building for the full 48 hours offering support and advice to the jammers.

On Sunday at 5 p.m., the groups reunited to showcase the latest rendition of their games. Each group got to go to the front of the room and present their game, explaining the creative process and each member’s role in the team. 

“It is very rewarding to be done; there is no pressure to finish or even present your game, but I was happy to show it off along with the rest of my group,” said Gunderson.

In “Bubblingle,” the player got to control a soap bubble that traveled along a bathtub to gather other bubbles to increase in size and reach further levels. In “Springs-Keeper: Bubble Over,” the player took on the role of a hot spring’s keeper, who had to adjust the waters to the customers’ preferences so they would bubble up and share stories with the players.

“My favorite moment is always the presentations at the end where everyone is able to support each others games and share their experiences. We also tried a new thing this year where we brought monitors/pizza to the presentation space and held an informal mini-game expo after presentations so that people could get hands-on with each other’s games, and that was really great,” said Warren. 

In the end, the groups got to enjoy an informal mini-game exposition and play each other’s games.

“I think the chance to meet new people and make something collaborative with them is really valuable, especially when you can combine skillsets to make something greater than the sum of its parts…We’ll no doubt be back in future years, but it’ll be in a very different capacity and I’ll definitely miss this,” Warren added. 
If you want to check the games developed during the Game Jam weekend, you can check them out on the club’s website.