Champlain Students Place 6th in Annual Game Maker’s Toolkit Jam

One of the biggest annual events in the gaming world, the Game Maker’s Toolkit Jam (GMTK) draws thousands of participants around the world who compete to create a fully-functional game over the course of a single weekend. That’s just 96 hours for developers to plan, design, and produce a game that follows the competition’s theme. This summer, Game Design major Zax Nathanson ’27 and Game Programming major Seth Riddensdale ’27 teamed up for the annual competition and came out on top of more than 7,500 entries in the GMTK, taking home sixth place for their game Super Gimbal.

“I had been wanting to do the Game Maker Jam for a while,” says Nathanson. “This one specifically was hosted by a really big YouTuber, and I was like ‘Hey yeah, this looks interesting, I want to do it.’ I pulled Seth into it and we decided to compete.” The two friends were among 32,000 participants, all responding to the GMTK’s theme Built to Scale.

“In almost every program used to create assets for games, there is a scale tool that allows you to change the size of an object,” says Riddensdale. “We spent an hour trying to figure out how to make a game out of that tool. I wanted to take the theme literally because I thought most people wouldn’t immediately think of that.” Nathanson and Riddensdale spent two hours out of their allotted ninety six coming up with their interpretation before eventually choosing to go with their unique take—titled Super Gimbal.

A puzzle-platformer, Super Gimbal features a character named Gimbal, who is trapped inside a box, which is trapped inside of the Pal Game Engine. The objective of the game is to solve puzzles and scale and drag Gimbal to escape the Pal Game Engine. If the player gets stuck, gifs offer clues and help. It’s a concept that Riddensdale, with background knowledge in pixel art as well as a familiarity with audio production, was inspired to create based on old Nintendo DS games.

Setup for Success: The Classroom and Beyond

Both students accredited part of their success to Champlain’s in-depth Game Technology class and the overall interdisciplinary nature of the Game Studio Experience, which brings together students from all seven game majors to collaborate on projects. “The structure of that class was back to back projects, you’d be tasked with a game to make for two weeks at a time. It helped me figure out time management and how to work with other people,” Riddensdale says.

“The game classes really push for creativity,” adds Nathanson. “It’s about trying to make you more creative, or better at coming in with ideas. It’s a lot more advanced in the second year as opposed to freshman year.”

Nathanson, who worked on the game’s programming as well as art, had some wise words to offer anyone who is thinking about participating. “My one piece of advice would be to not be afraid to make something and scrap it. I know I spent like eight of my hours working on things that didn’t end up getting into the game, but if I hadn’t done that, then I wouldn’t have come up with the next ideas that were better.”

For Riddensdale, “The biggest lessons I learned from this process were time management and working in a team. You have to know when to look at something you’ve worked on for hours and say ‘Okay, this is good enough,’because otherwise you might end up sinking four or five hours,” they admit.

In many ways, the GMTK process is similar to Champlain College’s annual Game Senior Show, which unveils fully-functional games created by teams of Game Studio majors over the course of their final year. Like the GMTK, the Game Senior Show relies on effective collaboration between designers, programmers, artists, and more to produce a final product that’s ready for play. For Nathanson and Riddensdale, Super Gimbal is a look at what’s to come their senior year.

“I think game jams in general are really good opportunities,” Nathanson says. “No matter if it performs well or not, the fact of the matter is that you made a game in such a short timeframe, which is very commendable. I urge anyone who wants more portfolio pieces to just try a game jam out. It’s an excellent way to gain experience, and you might be surprised with the outcome.”