I got together with a group of young game designers who participated in the Global Game Jam and talked with some of them about their experience working on such an interesting challenge.
Leading the group was Brianna Shuttleworth, a game design student with a background in fine arts, who led the group’s efforts and who brought them all together to participate in the Global Game Jam. She had called together her friends, Alex Pearl, J.T. Mints and Brandon Johnsen to work together in this challenge. In addition to being ASU students, Alex, J.T. and Brandon all are avid gamers in their own right.
Video Game Odyssey: How did you come to find out about the event?
Brianna Shuttleworth: “Through Twitter, there were two kinds of challenges that were being talked about; either you did the ‘one game a month’ challenge or the annual game crunch.”
VGO: Was this your first time working on a game like this?
(From left to right) Branden, Alex and J.T. are all hard at work, putting the finishing touches on their game. Meanwhile, Brianna (not pictured) directs the action and works to ensure all is well. Photo by Preston SoteloBS: “Yeah, it was.”
Alex Pearl: “Yes, it was.”
Brandon Johnsen: “Yeah, definitely. At first I thought it as more of a gaming event instead of game-making.”
J.T. Mints: I had worked on small flash games before on my own and for a class, but never before had I worked on a team to make a game.”
VGO: What part of the game where you in charge of designing or producing?
BS: “I helped with mainly background art and I worked on sound with Brandon.”
AP: “Well, the most expertise I could offer was on gameplay stuff, I read up a lot on game mechanics and that sort of thing. J.T. pulled most of the weight doing the programming. I also worked on some of the art, since the closest thing I had done before was sprite art for my webcomic.
BS: “My responsibilities were twofold. I wasn’t as interested in programming or as talented as Alex or Bri in art, so I helped with brainstorming ideas, developing the game’s story and finding sound files for us to use.”
JM: “I was the programmer; I programmed nearly all the code for the game. That also meant working with the team to put stuff into the game.”
VGO: What did you find was the most challenging aspect of the process?
BS: “Probably making sure that we had enough time to manage our schedule. We came to a point in the process where we put it all together, but we had no time to test it out and root out bugs."
AP: “Honestly if we hadn’t been in such a hurry we would have been able to straighten out the story. I would have wanted to flesh out the story more, but we only had time to work with the gameplay.”
BJ: The most challenging part was finding a way to make myself useful to everyone else and making sure that there was a consistent theme in making a product with so many individual pieces.”
JM: “Probably designing an effective A.I. for the enemies in the game. We only had 48 hours so we couldn’t do anything too complicated, but yet it had to be complex enough to offer excitement to the players.”
VGO: What was the most important thing that you learned from your experience?
BS: “Well, it was my first time working with a group, so it was a challenge to manage and communicate all the group members. Especially working with J.T. so that he could understand what we wanted so that he could program it.”
AP: “It was extremely fun to be part of a team and being a part of that process was very exciting.”
BJ: “Hmm, I guess that whether or not you have a particular talent for a task, you can still find a way to make yourself useful.”
JM: “The most important thing for me was affirmation. I knew I loved programming and that I wanted to work on games and software like this. I learned to work together with a team to make these games and I loved every part of it. I came away with the certainty that I made the right decision to be where I am and do what I’m doing.”
VGO: What advice would you give to others looking to get involved?
BS: “Make sure you have a schedule beforehand and keep things as ‘bare bones’ simple as possible when designing your game. Then once that’s finished and you have time, you can build on it.”
AP: “Seek inspiration from other games, I know Limbo was a great inspiration to me since it had a similar idea to our game of having a little boy face dangers in a strange place."
BJ: “Definitely make sure you are willing to work with a team and don’t get hung up on little things.”
JM: “You want to surround yourself with gamers and people who are involved with making games. Having those people around you gives you great opportunities to show off your stuff.”
VGO: Are you planning to participate in more events like this?
BS: “Probably, there are other game crunches coming at the end of the month, I don’t know about everyone else, but I will definitely be participating.”
AP: “Only as long as it’s with people I know. The best part is working with friends and great people to make these games. If Bri ever asked me again I would say yes in a heartbeat.”
BJ: “Truth be told, I’d probably take some programming classes before trying this again, but that would be a ways off. I see myself as coming up with ideas at this point.”
JM: “Absolutely, even from this challenge we have the opportunity to flesh out the game further. Now that I know I can do it.”
Want to get involved in similar game jams? Find out more here.
What to get in touch and talk gaming? Contact the reporter at preston.sotelo@asu.edu or via Twitter at @p_sotelo
