Welcome to the Jam: The Making of Super Street Harassment RPG

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Life in the Crunch Lane

The most important thing I took away from CSU's East Bay Jam? Video games are goddamned hard to make. Sure, it's not like this idea never crossed my mind before those three days, but working directly on a game gave me a new appreciations for those experiences that get everything absolutely right—frankly, it should be impossible. Even with two knowledgeable programmers and a fairly simple flowchart, we barely squeaked past the finish line, and the other teams around us struggled just as valiantly. Though it wouldn't look quite as appealing on the poster, this was really more of a "prototype jam:" At best, we had a working example, but not necessarily a game you'd download off of Steam and while away the night playing. Still, it felt somewhat magical when the various assets poured into Construct 2 began to work (mostly) as intended.

I reached out to my team a few weeks after the Game Jam ended, and they had similar feelings about the final product. "The results weren't too bad," says Connie, "and as with everything I work on, I feel as if it could have been done better. Some of the encounters were buggy, but everything else seems to work fine. Due to the time limit, I can't blame anyone. Some of the things that could be worked on are randomized dungeons and a better looking interface. Someday I'll refine this and try out RPGmaker to see how that works out and put that in a portfolio." And, like Connie, this event inspired Josh to continue his game-making efforts: "The Game Jam helped reinforce an idea that I already had: making video games is tough, and working in a group can also be tough, but it can be fun, and is usually rewarding," he says. "I am more likely to want to do a Game Jam in the future after going to this one—because my experience was pleasant."

Over a Skype call, Richard shared his postmortem thoughts on Super Street Harassment RPG: "The biggest thing [the Game Jam] taught me is just how much artwork actually is needed to do this type of thing. Like, it's not just all coding; you definitely need some type of artist to basically create your game. And without it, it's not going to be much of anything—I always think of the coding part and not the art, I guess. The final product, I thought, worked pretty well. I really do like how it looks—it does look retro to me."

Luckily for Richard, Connie, and Josh, they and other students will be able to give their game design efforts another try in the coming months, since CSU East Bay's Game Jam isn't likely to disappear anytime soon. In a follow-up interview, Pollock told me the event has a bright future at his institution.

"It’s now at a point," says Pollock, "where people from other departments are both helping in the organization of events, but also are looking forward to the event. So we get inquiries about, 'I’m going to be at the next one, I can’t make it this time.' There is sort of awareness now of this thing and it’s slowly growing. In fact, I had a meeting today where we talked about a minor in Creativity and Innovation, and Game Jam was actually one of the vehicles that kind of came up in that conversation. So it’s turning into something very different, but also it’s turning into the thing that I was kind of hoping for when I first started it."

[I'd like to thank the following people, without whom this article wouldn't be possible: The faculty and staff of CSU East Bay, for letting me attend this student-only function, Ian Pollock, who offered his insight and put me in touch with some of the attendees, Maryam Ahangari, who took the photographs you've seen throughout this cover story, and Devin Dominguez, who created some great music for Super Street Harassment RPG. And finally, thanks to my team for agreeing to work alongside me while I documented our efforts for the website-reading public.]