The College of Architecture’s Department of Visualization recently hosted Chillennium 2019, the world’s largest student-run game jam, at Texas A&M University’s Memorial Student Center. This year the annual event drew more than 400 video game development enthusiasts from universities and colleges all over the world to compete.
Chillennium is an event where participants are tasked with planning, designing and developing a video game from scratch in 48 hours. During the competition, they are given the opportunity to show off their computer programming and development skills, meet fellow developers and network with industry professionals who are advisors on the competition floor. The theme for this year’s competition was “All for One and One for All.”
Kishan Patel and Ryan Pfeifer, senior students in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M, competed in this year’s competition and both were on teams that won some of the top awards.
Patel was part of team Pig-Cat, which won the best in game design and fan-favorite awards. They created Aw Sheep!, in which players must collect as many sheep as possible before the timer runs out. Whoever collects the most sheep by sundown is the winner.
For the best in game design award, each member of the team received a trophy and a $75 gift card, and for the fan-favorite award, members received a trophy and a $100 gift card.
“I have attended three Chillennium competitions during my time here at Texas A&M and found each one to be a learning experience,” Patel said. “The atmosphere is great because almost everything is taken care of and all we have to do is focus on our tasks. I always learn a lot, and I feel that is true for everyone who attends.”
Pfeifer was part of the first-place overall winning team, Biterate Entertainment. The team created Honey Up!, a real-time strategy game where players are responsible for managing resources for a beehive.
Each team member received a $150 gift card, a one-year license for Houdini (a 3D animation software application), tickets to South by Southwest 2020 and a trophy.
“I’ve participated in Chillennium every year since I was a freshman. I’m hoping to find a career in game development after college, so I have always taken Chillennium very seriously. But it’s also a lot of fun to see a game come together in 48 hours,” said Pfeifer. “I’ve absolutely loved competing throughout college, and I think that the experience I’ve gained is invaluable for someone looking for a job in game development.”