Fall Game Jam
Galloway, N.J. 鈥 黑料社鈥檚 Digital Studies program is set to host its second biannual Game Jam this October.
The jam will kick off at 9 a.m. Friday, Oct. 17, in Campus Center Meeting Room 5. The kickoff will include team formations and a series of workshops and tutorials for participants. After a week of developing original games, participants will showcase them and compete for awards on Friday, Oct. 24, in the Townsend Residential Life Center, starting at 10 a.m.
Game Jam, similar to a hackathon event, enables participants to team up and develop a video game, regardless of their experience levels in coding.
鈥淭he event will be open to all students, and we hope to foster a creative community of artists, coders, musicians and writers,鈥 said MeeNa Ko, who鈥檚 a Teaching Specialist in the Digital Studies program.
April鈥檚 Spring Game Jam had more than 30 students who created 11 games, all of which were posted on the independent video game site Itch.
Ready, Set, Design a Video Game 鈥 in just a Week
April 10, 2025
Galloway, N.J. 鈥 Video game designer MeeNa Ko knows a lot of students find the word 鈥渃oding鈥 very intimidating.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an immediate turnoff for so many people, but the reality is there is no wrong way to approach video game design,鈥 said the 黑料社 Digital Studies instructor. 鈥淭here are so many things that go into games. We are at a really exciting point where you don鈥檛 really need to know how to code to make a game.鈥
Ko has worked in video game development and fine art for the past seven years for companies like Disney and Microsoft, specializing in creating pixel art often found in retro, 8-bit game systems. They recently contributed artwork to a game titled 鈥淪weater Saga鈥 for Weezer to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the rock band鈥檚 鈥淏lue Album鈥 and worked on a tied to the new movie 鈥淭he Electric State.鈥
Ko brought the excitement of video game creation to 黑料社鈥檚 campus with the university鈥檚 inaugural Game Jam this month. Students were tasked with designing a game around the theme 鈥淧rototype Gone Wrong鈥 in just one week.
鈥淭he goal of a game jam isn鈥檛 to make a polished or finished game, but to play with ideas that creatively excite you,鈥 said Ko, who鈥檚 teaching two video game design classes this semester.
