FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

How do I join the club?

There is no formal process to join or sign up, and there is no membership fee. If you’re interested, simply show up to any of our meetings or events! It’s that simple. 


What do you do at club meetings?

Meetings usually are talks about some aspect of game development. It can be anything to do with game development, ranging from programming tips, design tips, genre analysis and case studies, art, music and sound design, animation, community management and player behavior, etc. Some talks may also be more interactive with demos or discussion. 

Talks are usually given by members of the officer team. However club members are also welcome to give talks about something they are passionate about and/or knowledgeable in that is relevant to game development. Members can sign up to give talks here.

We will also sometimes bring in guest speakers who work in the game industry! These will most often be Q&As about their experience, though sometimes speakers will also present on a topic or demo a project. 


What are the best ways to be active and involved in the club? 

Attend our meetings and events! We also strongly recommend joining our discord server to connect with other members, show off projects, and get the latest announcements about club happenings. You can join here.

You can also sign up to receive our weekly email newsletter here.


What sort of events/activities does the club host?

In addition to our weekly meetings, some of the events we host include game jams, mini jams, game nights, and workshops.

Game Jams are our biggest events, and we host one per semester. These are weekend-long hackathon-like events, beginning on a Friday night and ending on the Sunday afternoon. People show up, get in teams, and with inspiration from a theme revealed at the start of the jam, make a game! At the end, we showcase everyone’s games and vote on favorites for prizes (*as budget allows). For in-person jams, we also provide free meals as well! Game Jam FAQ is below to address more questions specific to those. 

Mini jams are game jams that are only a day, usually about 8 hours long and more relaxed, focused on specific tools or themes such as the Twine jam in the fall for making text-based adventures in Twine and the RenPy jam for Valentine’s day for making visual novels.

Game nights are what they sound like, social events where we simply hang out and play games!!

Workshops usually take place on weekends and are usually a couple of hours long, dedicated to helping members learn a particular engine or tool. Examples include workshops on the Unity game engine, Godot game engine, and Blender for 3D modeling. 


Am I required to be at meetings/events?

Nope. Just show up to whatever interests you or works with your schedule!


What is the link to join virtual meetings? 

Unless otherwise specified, virtual meetings are streamed on our Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/uagamedev 


I am not a CS major/have little to no programming or game dev experience. Can I still join? 

Absolutely! Anyone is welcome to join. We’re here to help each other learn, so don’t let inexperience stop you! Game Dev also is more than just programming - it’s art, music, business, design, animation, and much more, so if coding isn’t your thing there’s still something here for you. 


I have more questions!

Ask away! Email us at gamedev@cs.arizona.edu or reach out to one of our officers on our discord server. 


Game Jam FAQs

I am not a CS major/have little to no programming or game dev experience. Can I still join?

Absolutely! You’ll learn so much at a game jam. We do recommend if you can to diversify experience levels on your team, so newer people partner up with veterans if possible in order to make it as worthwhile as possible for everyone. 


I don’t have a team. Will I be able to form a team at the game jam?

No problem! Most people don’t have teams before the game jam. Teams are usually formed at the start of the jam. For in-person jams, people will usually show up a half hour or so early to socialize and form teams, and we might host team-building activities for those still looking after the opening ceremony. For virtual jams, we will usually have team building channels open on our discord server for people looking to form groups. 


How closely do I have to follow the theme? 

As closely as you want! The theme is just there to give you inspiration. 


Are there any specific engines/tools/programming languages we’re required to use?

Nope. Feel free to use whatever you want to make your game! We’ve had games made in all kinds of engines: Unity, Unreal, Love2D, Godot, Phaser, Twine, RenPy, RPGMaker, PyGame, even coded from scratch in Python or Processing!


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