Today's main feature chronicles the second year of the 24-Hour Game Design Challenge, which saw eleven student teams converge on Parsons School of Design in New York City to take the field in this year's event, dubbed "The Mobile Game Mosh."
The following excerpt describes the behavior of some of the sixty or so participants as the clock winds down and the tension mounts:
In the corner of the room, two members of !KILLAH BITZ! are asleep. The group has been extremely quiet the entire time of the competition, and it's still not clear what the state of their game is. All that has been known is that they are doing some sort of monster-building and fighting game. The creatures, which are built from various animal parts (imagine a gorilla's head, on a bear's body, with crane's wings, and lion's legs), were created hours ago in Photoshop, near the start of the competition, and no one has yet seen them move in the game environment.
Back in the main room, more sounds are filling the room, this time from Daddy. Their game is also starting to become clear; an action game in which one must digest donuts in order to build up a supply of waste product to unload on the enemy, who will become empowered by any donuts missed by the player.
Almost everyone else is still toiling away, the pace has quietly and noticeable quickened, though Mikey runs around and slides across the room in his socks. He's also saying sentences that don't entirely make sense, and cracking jokes that only he seems to understand. The disadvantage of working in a one-man team around the clock (and taking time to help others) manifests as Mikey shows the first signs of becoming unhinged, granted in a pleasant, humorous manner.
You can now read
the full Gamasutra report on the subject, including an hour-by-hour account of the event (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).
