On Saturday, October 13th, AlphaLab hosted the first Game Jam of the 2018-2019 school year!
Game Jams hosted by AlphaLab are intended to give participants the opportunity of understanding team dynamics, as well as learning how to fit multiple roles in the game development process.
Each of the 60 participants were divided up into three teams each led by this year’s AlphaLab leaders. The theme was “Pancakes”.
Games created were:
- Pancake Prince, a platformer about a savory prince trying to save his loyal golden brown dog
- Flipping Out, a game about serving up beautiful pancakes with delicious toppings
- Syrup Sumo Showdown, a game about two fluffy pancakes trying to push each other off of the dining table
Game Jams begin with designing mechanics, concept, and art style for the game.
All members are involved in the game’s design and concept so that every member understands the core pillars of the game.
Once the game has been decided and fits the assigned theme, teams move into production.
Artists begin sketching out character sheets, sprites, backgrounds, drafting animations, and user interface elements, while designers begin crafting layouts that make use of the decided mechanics, and programmers code those mechanics.
Team leaders facilitate communication between each team section to ensure consistency.
Judges review each game for playability, design, art, animation, and fun. The winner for this Game Jam was Syrup Sumo Showdown, as its smaller scope allowed for more complete features to be implemented.
Congrats to the Syrup Sumo Showdown team and everyone who participated!
You can play each game and decide for yourself below:
The members who participated will have the chance to create more games together on N
ovember 20th, 2018!