At IPFW, I participated in my first game jam, and made a fun game with my roommate.

My roommate Joey and I have been involved with the IPFW Game Developers Club. We were excited to have the chance to build a game in just a weekend.

In case you aren’t familiar with Global Game Jam or game jams in general, read this: A game jam is a short weekend-long project where multiple teams (in this case, around the Globe) worked together to make games that fit a theme that isn’t announced until the clock starts. Jammers must design, program, draw, animate, and write a video game before the time runs out, which are afterwards published or shared with other jammers.

The IPFW Game Developers Club had booked a room on campus for this event. All members gathered ‘round the projector and awaited the livestream to announce the theme… and this year it was “Ritual”.

We elected to make a simple game that we knew we could finish and players would still find entertaining. Puzzle games were simple and I had experience making them. The first thing to come to Joey’s mind after hearing the theme was “summoning ritual”. So, a puzzle game with summon monsters it was! Neither of us knew Unity, so we made it in Java, which seemed to surprise the other IPFW jammers.

I’m proud of the result, but the source code– while functioning perfectly– is not very well-structured. Tight deadlines don’t usually produce that kind of code, it seems.