Over the last weekend in January, 17 Cedarville University students, including Skyler Cash of Seymour, worked together to complete the Global Game Jam annual game-creation challenge.

The challenge tasks students with creating an original high-tech video game in 48 hours, and the Cedarville, Ohio, institution’s team collaborated to make five games within the allotted time.

This year’s challenge featured 20,000 participants from more than 100 countries with a final game count totaling nearly 6,000.

Global Game Jam selects a theme for the games, and this year, they chose "Lost and Found."

All of the student participants were self-nominated, and of the 17 involved, Cash represented the individual studies major. The students completed their five games from start to finish independent of faculty assistance.

Given COVID-19 pandemic protocols, the collaboration process for the 2021 challenge took a more remote approach. Cedarville’s students communicated primarily through Discord, a messaging platform frequently used by gamers. 

Students retain ownership of their games and are free to publish them publicly or post them for sale. Cedarville’s students published their games for public play, and they are accessible at globalgamejam.org/2021/jam-sites/cedarville-university/games.