Studio X Launches Its First Game Jam: XCalibur
This March, Studio X hosted our first-ever game jam—XCalibur! Inspired by Aurum, our VR project in partnership with the Robbins Library to create a virtual alchemical lab based on real medieval manuscripts, we teamed up once again with Robbins to bring a medieval-themed game jam to life. Over 32 hours, 22 participants from five different majors—plus graduate students from the Simon Business School—came together to create eight unique games.
Kicking Things Off
The 32-hour jam kicked off with an energizing opening address from Robbins Library Director Anna Siebach-Larsen, followed by a design thinking workshop led by iZone’s Curriculum Design Specialist Samantha Monaghan and student Megan Wu, guiding participants in applying design thinking to game development. Studio X’s XR Specialists were also on hand, offering expert consultation on 3D modeling and game creation.
Medieval Mayhem: The Games Take Shape
Our goal was to spark interdisciplinary collaboration—and we got that in spades! The jam featured an even mix of board and video games, all inspired by a medieval, Arthurian theme. Participants were given "King Arthur" as a creative prompt and set free to build. The results were wildly imaginative: a rhythm game where you duel rival knights with your sword, a platformer involving a daring tower climb to rescue a princess, a board game where players competed as dragons to conquer the world, and a resource management game centered on peasants gathering supplies to survive the winter.
Cross-Disciplinary Creativity in Action
We’re super excited by the positive response to this event, particularly the range of departments represented by our participants (Computer Science, Digital Media Studies, Statistics, English, Psychology). It was fascinating to see the different ways everyone approached the jam: we had a few solo developers, but other teams split work evenly with all members serving as generalists, while others divided teams into more niche roles such as artists, 3D modelers, combat designers, narrative designers, and programmers. Through play, we brought multiple disciplines together—by all measures, that’s a huge success. We plan to continue running the jam yearly, and next year we hope to see even more game-makers bring their own innovative approaches.
Announcing the Winners
Judging was based on creativity, gameplay, visual and technical design, and thematic interpretation. Congratulations to our winning teams!
- Game of the Jam (Best Overall): Flame's Legacy
Team members: Tiago Davies, Caroline Li, Michael Reidy, Rae Zhang - Most Innovative Use of the Theme (Best application of the theme): Erde
Team members: Kemi Akindude, Wyatt Boska, Allencia Grant, Michael Hahn - X-ceptional Extended Reality Experience (Best of XR): Glass of Medieval
Team members: Rain Xia, Earvin Chen - Fantastic Physical Game (Best Physical Game): The Scorned
Team members: Katie Ho, Oren Schwartz, Andrea Sun
Behind the Scenes: Making XCalibur Happen
The game jam was co-organized by Liz Hogrefe '25 and fellow Miles Vilke '25 as part of the Karp Library Fellowship, where we focused on creating innovative programming for Studio X that engaged a new, interdisciplinary audience. The entire Studio X team played a vital role in bringing the event to life: our marketing team designed posters and t-shirts and led a six-week social media campaign; our XR Specialists coordinated with Public Safety and library staff to provide overnight support; and section supervisor Aleem Griffiths joined Professor Kristana Textor and Robbins Library student employee Alexander Chatterjee to take on the tough task of judging the final games.
Thank You to Our Supporters
On behalf of Studio X, I’d like to thank everyone across the University that contributed to the game jam’s success: Anna Siebach-Larsen, Meg Moody, Aleem Griffiths, Joe Zelazny, Yvie Zhang, Jenny Arbelo, Verónica Cisneros, Lois Metcalf, Rachel Cheman, Erin Fisher, Claudia Pietrzak, Alexander Chatterjee, Samantha Monaghan, and Megan Wu.
About this Author
Elizabeth Hogrefe, Karp Library Fellow, Narrative Designer
Photography by Hammer Chen and Earl Bumagat
