Video Game Development Club

One of my passions has always been making video games. It’s the reason I’m working on a Computer Science degree and focusing it on game programming. I noticed that my university does not have any classes where we actually make games, therefore I started a club to fill that role.

This club is designed to give students a chance to collaboratively learn and create games. Anyone with an interest in video game development is welcome, from any skill level and any major.

We started in January 2018 and quickly grew to 40 members enrolled by the start of Summer. Led by members who had experience in Unity3D, we split up into three groups to teach novice members how to use Unity3D. Each group worked to develop their own game, resulting in a 2D asteroids game, a 2D platformer, and a maze running game. After all the groups had finished, we combined forces to work on one large project together. We divided labor into a game mechanics team, level design team, multiplayer networking team, and engine/render team. During our first year, we also hosted a guest lecture from a hobby-indie game group making a mobile card game.

During our second year, we grew to over 100 members. We continued work on a large game project together. While our main focus was larger scale development, we also managed to accomplish several other goals we had planned for the club. We continued to host guest lectures, most recently a long time indie hobbyist who releases small mobile games for coffee money.

We also attended Global Game Jam 2020 at a site in Portland Oregon run by the Portland Indie Game Squad (PIG squad). We divided up into two teams and each built a game that has since been publish on itch.io, allowing club members to further enhance their portfolios.