Galloway, N.J. — Video game designer MeeNa Ko knows a lot of students find the word “coding” very intimidating.

“It’s an immediate turnoff for so many people, but the reality is there is no wrong way to approach video game design,” said the Stockton University Digital Studies instructor. “There are so many things that go into games. We are at a really exciting point where you don’t really need to know how to code to make a game.”

Ko has worked in video game development and fine art for the past seven years for companies like Disney and Microsoft, specializing in creating pixel art often found in retro, 8-bit game systems. They recently contributed artwork to a game titled “Sweater Saga” for Weezer to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the rock band’s “Blue Album” and worked on a Netflix mobile game titled “Kid Cosmo” tied to the new movie “The Electric State.”

Ko brought the excitement of video game creation to Stockton’s campus with the university’s inaugural Game Jam this month. Students were tasked with designing a game around the theme “Prototype Gone Wrong” in just one week.

“The goal of a game jam isn’t to make a polished or finished game, but to play with ideas that creatively excite you,” said Ko, who’s teaching two video game design classes this semester.

Ko sees the jams as a great way to promote Stockton’s Digital Studies program. The undergraduate degree focuses on the intersection of digital communication studies, digital visual arts and computer information systems.

“I want to make the program more approachable. I think for a program like Digital Studies, which is an interdisciplinary program, games totally embody that, right?” Ko said.

The students could work by themselves or in a team. Ko said more than 30 students participated and created 11 games that were presented at a showcase on April 4. The programs were posted on Itch, a website for anyone to host, sell or download independent video games.

“I have found that a lot of students are super curious about game development. They always want to make games, and they have a lot of questions about how to get started,” they said. “I’ve found that the best way to learn is just to do it.”

Junior Anthony Winks has been designing simple video games with his friend and fellow Stockton student Tyler Snyder for years. Winks said he was so excited when he noticed flyers posted around campus promoting the jam.

“It’s a really good creative output because it’s just a mix of so many different things. There’s music, there’s programming, there’s art and sound design,” said the Little Egg Harbor Township native. “I think of myself as not particularly great at any one of those things, but I’m someone who’s good at everything, so games are a really cool way to bring that together and make something on the screen.”

Winks said he and Snyder worked about 40 hours to develop “Warp Route” a sideways scrolling game with a retro “Super Mario Bros.” feel. In the game, you are a mail man struggling to keep up with an impossible quota of pickups. You travel through different dimensions to find the fastest route to deliver your mail while fighting enemies along the way.

The game won the jam’s Multimedia Superstar award. And while Winks and Snyder were only able to complete one level during the week, Winks said they plan on finishing the game this summer.

“I thought it was really, really fun,” said the Applied Physics major. “I really enjoyed that it was at Stockton. Meeting the other people who also did their own games was really cool.”

The chance to meet, socialize and work with others interested in game design was what drew Levi Paige to sign up.

“I’m actually a very socially anxious person, and it’s my first time being down here on campus,” said the Ontario, Canada, native who transferred from Union College of Union County. “I really love MeeNa and the class. When they said they were hosting a Game Jam where you get to essentially meet a bunch of people and make a game in a week, I thought this was definitely something I should do.”

Paige said he’s always been interested in video games, and, especially as an Art Education major, designing art for them. He worked with partner Ani Mkrtchyan, of Wildwood Crest, to come up with “Finding D.D.” — a 2D, top-down-style game where you help an experiment find he way around his home. He created all of the art assets for the game.

“I thought it was really stressful,” he said with a laugh. “I won’t lie, trying to make a fully functional and finished game within a week is a lot of work. But overall, it was very rewarding, and I’m very proud of what we made together.”

The range of working games in the jam surprised Ko, especially since the majority of the participants created games for the first time.

“It’s not uncommon to have broken builds or have games not even reach a finished point over the course of a game jam, but the majority of the games were functional prototypes,” they said.

Ko hopes to hold a video game jam every semester and even include a board game jam once a year. They also would like Stockton to become an official site host for Global Game Jam, one of the largest international game jams held in January.

-- Story by Mark Melhorn, photos by Susan Allen