Kyle Lynn, a senior majoring in computer science and minoring in communication design is the proud president of Game Development Club at California State Monterey Bay (CSUMB).
“I was very excited to be a part of this when I first transferred to CSUMB.” Reflecting on the growth of the club since 2023 Lynn said, “A lot of people were still feeling antisocial, traumatized from COVID so it’s really only gotten better and better since my time joining. People have been doing their best to cultivate community, work together, seeing familiar faces during club meetings all the time really warms my heart… because outside of university I know it can be really hard for people to have a third place to go that’s still based around community building.”
According to Lynn, the main goals as a club are “to have fun, not stress too much, make fun things and to make friends.”
“Often our meetings will be centered around play testing each other’s work, it’s the only way to know if you’re accomplishing what you set out to do,” Lynn said. The club also works in tandem with many courses on campus, acting as a place where students can get help with their personal projects.
In the past the club has had guest speakers come and share their experiences. Workshopping is another large aspect of the club, helping members to fine tune certain skills. Lynn expresses that the club “…mostly just tries to cater to whatever our members want to learn.”
They have gone twice to the Game Development Conference in San Francisco. Lynn hopes that in the future they will be able to send their own projects to the conference to show them off.
While not being a new club this year, Game Development Club is trying some new things by expanding their Game Jam projects to include more students on campus.
“We participate in a lot of group activities, we play games, analyze our favorite games, show off things and do group projects.” Game Jams are a major aspect of the club, “where people work together to create a small game from start to finish, which could take anywhere from a few days to weeks.” This month’s Jam is titled Under the Soil and is planned to be a digital art gallery.
“The idea focuses around people working together, collaborating and making friends. It’s the best way to have working relationships, build trust and go on to build more complicated projects.” So far they have reached out to other clubs on campus to see if there are students interested in crossing creative paths and working on this Jam together.
“Last year we did an art jam where everyone contributed a piece of pixel art, but this year we wanted to expand it to include 3D models, music, sound, anything anyone would like to contribute.”
Looking toward the future, they plan to host a Renaissance Fair themed Game Jam and “in November we will be taking over something Katie Green established- the official OtterJam.” Students will engage in a week-long competition for prizes to see who can complete a game from start to finish.
The club runs two meetings a week. One on Mondays from noon to 2 p.m. where the bulk of the working, planning and brainstorming takes place and again on Fridays from 4 to 8 p.m. in BIT building room 105, for a more informal, chill session where people hang out, play music and work on whatever they want.
