Learn how students used library resources to create interactive experiences and games at the inaugural event hosted in collaboration with the Video Game Development Club with a reflection by STEM Librarian Cat Dinh.
ASU Library kicked off its first inaugural game jam on March 20 and 28 in collaboration with the Video Game Development Club at the end of the busy week after spring break. Taking advantage of the library theme, tours were offered at the Music and Design and the Arts libraries, with books and scores that date back to the 1800s. Back at Hayden Library, a tour of Naturespace highlighted a digital archive of their specimens as well as photogrammetry tools to create 3D game assets from real-life objects.
After returning from the heat, the pizza arrived and the official kick-off presentation commenced! Library resources, including image collection databases and vetted open-sourced sound effect libraries were shared and game jam rules were explained, such as the freedom to use any open-source or free game engine that suited their game design, and the freedom to use artificial intelligence, as long as the team was clear what it was used for and never to ingest library resources. The submission process is simple: Include a design document to give context about what you’re trying to build and a playable prototype to demonstrate.
Several people came without a team and were guided by Ian Fletcher, this year’s president of the Video Game Development Club, to find collaborators. Two teams were formed this way, but only one was able to make it to the finish line.
We invited all participants into a Discord server administered by the ASU Games Community of Practice, and funneled people into their team channels. Throughout the week, teams took advantage of library rooms reserved for the event, and those who couldn’t meet in person used Discord to discuss their ideas and work. The Discord server was also the place to get questions answered, updates and reminders. On Friday night, teams were submitting their builds as late as 2 a.m. in order to have them verified as working in case teams needed a back-up build to present.
On Saturday, bagels generously shared by the neighboring SpaceHACK for Sustainability event welcomed team members trickling in. A few teams dropped out due to busy schedules, so it was a lo-fi chill start to the Saturday Showcase. Tim Feller, a social science librarian, Ian Fletcher, and Cat Dinh served as judges to determine winners for the award categories.
We started with our first team Manah, who recruited a musician friend to create the context-sensitive music for a rogue-lite game where you can choose different levels in a library dungeon and players must stave off ghosts and monsters with magical spells and buffs picked up from books in the library shelves. The audio design was incredibly professional and well-thought-out, and the pixelated art was painstakingly original, winning them the Artistic Award.
The second team, High Risk Low Reward, presented their game, Robo-Talk: A Post-apocalyptic Librarian Simulator. Inspired by the morning library tour, the team built a prototype where you’re the last human on earth archiving human-written books and recommending them to robots interested in learning about human culture! Their prototype demonstrated a conversation with a robot patron, dressed up as Elvis and obviously interested in human culture, winning them the Library Theme award.
The third team, One Cat and Dog, inspired by the Naturespace, created Nyanko’s Bug Catch, a whimsical Pokemon-like prototype where players explore the world to find and locate bugs in manipulated photos of ambiguous environments, while also teaching players about those insects using assets and descriptions from the Naturespace 3D Explorer. The mix of art styles and gameplay had potential, but limited in their prototype, which won them Best Intentions.
The fourth team, Awesome Sauce United, created a hilarious dating simulation prototype that anthropomorphized popular ASU buildings, Herberger “The Cake”, studious Winona Patricia Carey, and nerdy Fulton, as students on their first day of school!
The fifth team, Bug Net, also inspired by Naturespace, presented Books and Butterflies, a playful 3D environment inspired by the courtyard next to Hayden Library where players would collect butterflies and bring them back to the Naturespace to identify and catalogue them. The team scored well on thematic relevance, art, music, and gameplay, and won the Grand Prize.
The last team, Dino Nuggies, created Essay Expedition, where players dive into books to frogger-hop over islands, logs, and lava rocks in dizzying 3D platforms to collect citations floating in the sky at the end of the level. Indeed, doing research for an essay is very dizzying and difficult, to the point of vomiting, and they would definitely win the award for immersive emotional-physical affect.
For many of the participants, it was a tough week to schedule, but it was a rewarding time for those who could get together to build something fun!
If you would like to check out these games and design pitches, please visit the ASU Library Game Jam project on Open Science Framework.
Cat Dinh, Engineering Librarian, ASU Library