This past month, FIEA gathered 28 teams of students and professional game developers to compete in its first game jam. These competitions challenge participants to create a game, from start to finish, over the course of a single weekend. Each event picks a theme that the games must be designed around, and the theme of the first FIEA game jam was: sunshine.

Once the competition began on Friday, January 12th, each team had until 3 p.m. on Sunday to complete their game. That’s only a window of about 43 hours to make a playable game! Any sleep, eating and other activities that the members of each team takes cuts into the time they could be working on their game. Needless to say, this competition tests each teams’ ability to manage time to best optimize the little time they have to work.

First place for the undergraduate division was Team Chasm from Florida Polytechnic University, while CAT 4 from FIEA Cohort 20 won first in the graduate/professional division.

“Despite all the hardships, I loved working on this game, and I loved working together with my teammates,” said Jeffrey Zang, CAT 4 team captain. “From the beginning, it was clear that we all had the same passion, not only for cats, but also for creating a game we could all be proud of. Through all the grind and sleepless nights, we knew that we could trust and support one another, and that was absolutely my favorite part of the game jam.”

To find out more about the competition and the competing teams, check out the article written by Stephanie de Sousa.

By Ryan Fox.

Published to Nicholson News on February 8th, 2024.

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