On the weekend of January 23, Elmhurst College’s Game Developers Club teamed up with student writers, artists and musicians for the annual Global Game Jam, a 48-hour exercise in game creation.
The team of 28 students took over the second floor of Daniels Hall, and by the end of the intense weekend they’d created five games. The exercise marked the fourth year that the Elmhurst team has participated in the worldwide game-creation event.
This year, the students had help from Acuity Insurance, a Wisconsin-based company that has hired several Elmhurst graduates, including Matt O’Malley, former president of the Game Developers Club.
Acuity donated duffel bags to help Jammers lug overnight supplies, as well as flash drives to back up and transfer gaming files.
“The students are working on computers, saving their games, moving around,” said Linda Krause, advisor to the Game Developers Club. “Those donations definitely came in handy.”
The five student-produced games range from a dystopian survival game called No Safe Place to a “shoot ’em up” game called Shmup #413. All of the games are available to play for free online.