‘2022 NM Game Jam’ wraps up 48-hour competition

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Making a video game isn’t easy, let alone making one in 48 hours. But, that’s exactly what developers set out to do this weekend with the “New Mexico Game Jam.” 

“Game jams are just everything good about game design all in one little neat package. There’s a bit of time pressure so you can work a little harder,” noted one of the game designers, Armin Boroujerdi. 

The quest to create a video game in just two days has been an annual tradition in New Mexico’s game design community since 2009. Every year there’s a new theme, this time it’s “Mercy.” 

“Weirdly enough, I feel like the ‘mercy’ prompt made a lot of people’s ethical side come out, there was a lot of ideas around ethical dilemmas,” said Adrienne Neef, a jam participant.

First, teams met with the Albuquerque Game Developers Guild to brainstorm. Then it’s straight to work sketching, coding, and composing – some of them were working right out of their bedrooms.

“I work at my house, since COVID, but it’s pretty easy with Discord now. Or you can sit with the people at the venue and that’s really cool because you get to be with them all day. It’s like an event,” said Boroujerdi. 

“Lots of fun, clearly not right, stuff that happens. Finding out what you make on the fly with other people can kind of surprise you,” Neef said.   

And yet these developers are already looking ahead to next year’s game jam. 

“Even if you don’t finish you can use it as a learning experience,” said Boroujerdi.

“They are stressful, to some extent, but they are also fun. Then you just feel sort of dead, but satisfied at the end of it,” said Neef. 

The games from the 2022 New Mexico Game Jam can be found here.