It was February 6, 2026 when professor MeeNa Ko of the Digital Studies division in Stockton announced their Game Jam was live for any creative minds to make their teams and create a video game in a week’s time, and just in time for Valentine’s Day. The semester’s theme was to make it about a “shared pulse”, with any interpretation on-brand.

Eight small teams of artists got together to implement their talents in music, visual arts, voice acting, programming, creative writing, and sound design and had them all in for friends and visitors to see their video game development. Students, alumni, and staff alike from all over made their way to the Townsend Residential Life Center to showcase their projects.

With more than thirty attendees including a total of eight judges, the room had Korean fried chicken hot and ready as participants shared their hot and ready products for presentation. “Game creation is something I’ve been interested in especially since I’ve always loved playing games, and through the digital studies game jam at Stockton,” says undergraduate Samuel Clemens, the game developer behind Volt’s Venture and part of the team behind Curse of Empathy.

Clemens won the Game Jam’s Technical Design award, “I take part in a few clubs on campus, Stockapella, Esports, and Theatre club, but one of my favorite moments has to be when I’ve been able to help out with the game jam. I’ve participated in the game jam #2 and #3 over the course of the fall and spring semester this year and to say I’m excited to help would be an understatement.”

Professor Ko of Digital Studies explained, “This is our third time running this event, making this our first full year since we started making our Game Jams at Stockton, and it’s pretty incredible to see how it’s grown. We have established the goal to create a culture of game development at Stockton,”

They added, “There has been an accumulated knowledge which has been established and with that foundation we can continue to do more ambitious and crazy things, so I’m excited to see how much further this develops.” Ko and the seven other judges of the Game Jam awards selected winning game titles based in nine categories including Technical Design, Sound Design, Visual Design, Creative Writing, Accessibility, the MultiMedia Super Star, and the Library Choice Award.

With the Stockton Library in Galloway set to open this year for the 2026 fall semester, students had a nod of celebration of their close-knit thriving community by giving the Library Choice Award to game Hot Corn with their beloved character Corngun Guy, a game available on Itch.io along with People’s Choice and MultiMedia SuperStar winner Syncodate.

Winners for Visual Design and Accessibility went to the lovely artists behind this year’s title Goremet. The winners behind Sound Design, You Will Not Last, had a dark haunting sound complementing its story, and First Date which won the Creative Writing award for its charming monster-boy’s character writing.

The judges expressed with heart that choosing winners for the spring semester’s game jams was challenging, “It was such an enjoyable experience to join the Game Jam as one of the judges. The students put so much creativity, personality and effort into their games and it showed,” Events and Digital Communications Specialist, Darya Hrybava, had to say.

“I was surprised to find out that although it was an extracurricular activity and not part of a class, so many students participated and put countless hours into their projects. MeeNa Ko, faculty member for the Digital Studies program who organized this event did an amazing job making it a fun and engaging learning experience. Our students are very lucky to have such a supportive and encouraging instructor. I left the event energized and inspired!”

With the fourth game jam set to come again this year, who’s to say that love isn’t in the air for video game, music, story, and art lovers everywhere?