About Game Developers Club
The UMBC Game Developers Club is a professional, career focused club dedicated to bringing students of all majors together to learn about game development, learn in a team based environment, network, and improve our resumes and portfolios to get jobs upon graduation.
Frequently Asked Questions
We meet in ENG 005A on Fridays (1PM-5PM). Drop by anytime; you can leave or come anytime during the meetings.
No experience is necessary! The Game Developers Club exists to help members learn about game development, whatever their starting skill level.
Absolutely not! Just pop in during a meeting and ask an officer about the teams. We can help you get set up with a team that can accomodate your skill level and interests.
Most of our game development teams use the Unity game engine (using C#), with Unreal 4 (using Blueprints and C++) as a close second. Other game engines (Godot, Xenko) are also used on occasion.
Check out our resources tab for more information on what we use.
The lab room we meet in has computers any UMBC student can use. Just log in using your UMBC credentials and the computer will let you in, with Unity, Unreal and many other important applications already installed. However, for convenience, if you have a laptop you should try and bring it in.
Events
During the first few weeks of each Fall semester, the club hosts a opening game jam, where members propose ideas, form teams, and make a small prototype over the course of the weekend.
The teams that want to continue their projects put them up to a vote, and any that receive a majority of the club’s approval become official club games.
For the rest of the academic year, the teams work on these games, with the goal of creating a small polished product to show employers and the UMBC community at a number of events such as URCAD, Gamescape, Reverse Career Fair, MAGFEST, and more!
The club strives to help students get jobs and internships in a variety of different fields and upgrade their resumes and portfolios by putting the students into a productive, team-based environment, where they set milestones and deadlines by themselves to push a presentable product.
The club works with several groups such as the IGDA and Baltimore Unreal Engine Group to help students get used to networking and interacting with professionals in the game industry.
Through our networking, we bring in several industry veterans to present and give lectures to the club on topics ranging from the reality of the industry, to music, art, and programming.
The Digital Entertainment Conference is our club’s biggest annual event where we bring in industry veterans to give lectures to the club, the UMBC community, and everyone interested in the game industry. (High School students are welcome)