TritonWare Spring '25 Recap

Hello everyone! Welcome back. At the time of posting, we've just concluded our two week long semi-annual TritonWare game jam. In this blog post, we'll be recapping the entirety of the project, including a few words from event attendees and TritonWare participants!

Marking the beginning of the game jam, our TritonWare Kickoff event was an incredible start! Attendees were given their assigned team numbers at check in, directed to their tables, and were given a brief presentation on important dates throughout the duration of the jam. Afterwards, Scott Rudi, former director of Rocket League and current design director at Respawn Entertainment, entered the stage. He spoke about how creating games is like carving a sculpture: they're something you chip away at to reveal its core. Moreover, he advised that some genres are better fits for jams than others for game jams, specifically warning that if your game has "RPG" anywhere in its description, it's likely out of scope.

Having taken place two weeks after the kickoff, this year's TritonWare Showcase was a celebration of the hard work and dedication that participants put into the project. Two representatives from each team arrived before the event opened to the public to set up their game for display, with attendees given a brochure detailing what games were stationed where. With a festive and celebratory atmosphere, not a single game went un-played that night!

"Really cool. There were a lot of really great games made in two weeks. I especially liked team 12's, which was a two player platformer game that I think was really well polished and had really good level design."

We also had a handful of awards to be won at the event! There were four categories in total: Best Fits the Theme, Funniest Game, Most Challenging, Most Polished, and Player's Choice. The first three were to be decided upon by VGDC's officer board, with Player's Choice decided on by attendants of the showcase.

Team 27's game "Same Day Delivery" was awarded with Best Fits the Theme, team 19's "Hang Man" was awarded Funniest Game, team 13's "SNAKE2" was given the award for Most Polished Game, and last but certainly not least, team 22's "Fishing with Goober" left the event with an impressive two awards, winning both Most Challenging Game and Player's Choice!

Team 13: "It was such a surprise. Last night, we were barely pulling things together. Like, the game was not fun. So to win anything was so exciting for us."

Team 22: "Well, it was pretty stressful, especially towards the end. I pushed my team really hard, especially our artist. She redrew a lot of stuff."

Team 22: "Oh, it was very fun and interesting. It was my first time ever making a game in general, but I love my team and they pushed me to become a better and more efficient artist."

Team 22: "It was really challenging, but I think the group made it work. We had like, this talented group of people just working together and pushing each other to make, you know, the best viable product. Were the two weeks stressful? Yes, but it was really fun."

Thank you to everybody who agreed to speak for today's blog post! Your contributions helped make this a much more engaging experience, both to write and to read. I'd also like to thank everybody who participated in TritonWare; it was a privilege to be able to get to see so many amazing games made over the course of two weeks.

Join us next week for another exclusive interview, this time with one of VGDC's graduating executive board members. As always, thank you for reading!