The University of Hawai’i at Manoa Game Dev Club is a Special Interest Group under the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) where people interested in game development can come together to work on an entry for game-making competitions known as game jams. Over the past three years, the UH Game Dev Club has developed 15 original games, each one created by club members in its entirety. Through its activities and events, the club strives to connect its members with game development resources and provide experience working with industry-standard programs and on a team.
In addition to their work on game jams, the club has welcomed professionals from both AAA and indie companies—including Bungie Inc., Insomniac Games, and Concernedape LLC.—to speak about their industry and answer club members’ questions. The club has also hosted career-development workshops, which ranged from resume reviews to introducing members to industry-standard programs such as Unity and Autodesk Maya. Members may also participate in various recreational events such as the club’s most recent Inktober competition, which featured cash prizes.
In February, the club finished the development of their 15th game, Shrinky the Clown, for the Global Game Jam Honolulu 2024—Hawai’i’s chapter of the largest game creation event in the world. Together, members built the game from scratch: writing code, dialogue, music, and creating all art assets—all in just three days.
At the beginning of development, members brainstormed game concepts based on the jam’s theme “Make Me Laugh”, then developed potential game mechanics, character designs, and storylines. Once they finished conceptualizing, members pitched their ideas to the rest of the group and voted together on a final idea.
With an idea solidified, the club then held tutorials on Unity, Github integration, and pixel art to introduce members to programs and skills needed to create the game.
Over the next three days, the club began development of Shrinky the Clown. Tasks were split up amongst the 15 participants as they all worked together towards their goal of making a game.
By the final day of the jam, music and art assets were uploaded, and coding wrapped up its implementation of the game’s main mechanics: growing/shrinking and avoiding enemy sight lines. The game was then submitted and presented at the Global Game Jam Honolulu 2024’s commencement ceremony.
If you are interested in participating in the club’s future activities, join the UH Game Dev Discord server to keep up with the latest news. To learn more about past projects, visit their portfolio and follow their Instagram page (@uhmgamedev). Any inquiries or questions can be directed to gamedev@acmmanoa.org
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