The Global Game Jam is a worldwide event where teams of people collaborate and make a game in 48 hours. Designers, programmers, and artists get together locally and try to hash out a prototype. My Game Jam site was at The Rochester Institute of Technology.

The Game Jam started at 5pm EST in the Interactive Games and Media Department of RIT. The jam site had over fifty people!  I was one of very few who wasn’t a student. We had a brief mixing event and I met a couple of cool students named Hilary and Aleks, who were looking for an addition to join their two-person team.

After the mixer, everyone was given a theme to work with. This year’s theme was a beating heart. We sat for an hour before we settled on a game to create. It’s called Atune. It’s a Journey-esque game where you explore with another person. You tap out beats and sync up with your partner to unlock different parts of the world.

Your avatar creating a pulse.

Hilary worked on the music, the pulses, and most of the scripting and gameplay. Aleks was our lead programmer, getting networking to work in four hours! I delved right into making the world and any art assets.

Trying to sync up with the house.

The game came along smoothly. Everyone did a great job managing their time, and we didn’t have to crunch at the end.

There were many different game ideas, from saving a literal heart to an artistic game where you had to get over a bad memory. I met some pretty cool people, and it was great dusting off my old game design and creative skills.

I hope I can do this again next year!