As club members and officers gathered for their second-semester meeting, they began with an icebreaker activity. They loaded a game called “Guess The Game,” in which participants tried to identify a video game based only on screenshots and a few hints. It took a room full of gaming enthusiasts a while to arrive at the correct answer finally.
Events are just one of the many ways that members of the CSUN Game Development Club (GDC) bond with each other. Members share their passion for gaming by developing games or being around people who share their favorite gaming hobby.
The CSUN GDC is an interdisciplinary club, and people majoring in computer science, music and CTVA are currently part of it. Lead Artist, Max Ornelas, discusses this diversity further as the club is “mostly women and queer run” at the moment and welcomes any major at any skill level.
The club’s current president, Julia Gomez, has been a computer science major since 2022. Before joining the club, Gomez mentioned that her game development experience was “minimal at best.” Since then, she has grown a lot in the club.
“I have successfully created game projects on my thanks to the resources that the club offers to help students get started in their game development journey,” said Gomez.
In fall 2024, they hosted a horror-themed “Game Jam,” where multiple universities’ GDCs gathered to create a quick and ready game. Of the 23 submissions from eight universities, “Wild Ostrich Chase,” from a mainly CSUN team, won the entire Game Jam.
The club has also hosted workshops, sometimes featuring industry professionals, to help students understand the gaming industry. The club looks forward to helping anyone interested in the industry, whether coding, making art, modeling or gaming marketing. The CSUN GDC is here for anyone wanting to break into it.
Ornelas remarked on the importance of the club when they said, “We do our best to connect students with industry professionals that can give them an insight on what it would be like to work in the field. It’s a really fun experience and I can’t recommend it enough!”
