While other students partied, studied or slept, a group of about 15 artists, programmers, designers and sound artists spent their weekend holed up in the New Media Institute of Grady College, attempting to create a video game in 48 hours.

The group, mostly University students and graduates, formed the Athens team of the first Global Game Jam.

The Global Game Jam took place in 53 locations in 23 countries around the world, where teams worked from 5 p.m. Friday to 5 p.m. Sunday to make playable games.

Casey O’Donnell, president of the Athens chapter of the Georgia Game Developers’ Association and assistant professor in Grady College, heard about the Global Game Jam and decided to form a team. He “wanted to keep it small and dedicated” but said anyone was able to participate in the event.

The final group included students from a variety of majors, as well as recent University graduates and one student from Athens Technical College.

“It’s a nice mix, that’s the thing about video game development,” he said. “You really get people from varied backgrounds together.”

After brainstorming Friday afternoon, the group decided on a game scenario that involves a sea urchin trying to escape from a restaurant. The sea urchin blows a bubble from a piece of gum stuck to the counter and uses the bubble to float away, but if it bumps into anything, its spines get bigger, and if the gum touches anything, it deflates. The sea urchin is thwarted by obstacles such as evil croutons lurking in the salad bar.

“It’s completely off the wall, just a mishmash of every weird element,” said Jason Allen, a 2008 University graduate who worked on the game’s art. “Think of it as one of those weird dreams you have after eating really bad Chinese food.”

“It can be an intense process,” O’Donnell said of the challenge of creating a video game in such a short time period. But, “The restriction forces you to be imaginative. You can’t make Halo in 48 hours, it’s just impossible.”

Brandon Treadway, a second year graduate student from Kennesaw who worked as an engineer on the game, said, “It’s definitely a time crunch. You’d think it’d be a lot of time, but as far as it takes to make a game, it’s not a lot.”

Despite the limitations, O’Donnell is proud of the game.

“The game mechanics are not that complex, but I think we’ve come up with really rich artwork and a really rich set of sounds.”

The experience of developing a game in 48 hours is valuable for students who hope to work in game design someday.

“They can say, ‘Look, I was a part of this, I made a game in 48 hours’ – and [for] a lot of people who want to get into games, that’s key,” O’Donnell said.

The group had an “engineering glitch” Saturday morning, O’Donnell said, but was able to fix it and continue working.

“We streamlined it a little,” Alliene Bouchard, a junior from Kennesaw who worked on art for the game, said of the group’s progress on Saturday afternoon. “But it’s still going to be tough to finish, because we have high standards.”

By early afternoon on Sunday, the group was pressed for time but still confident they would have something to turn in.

“Everything won’t be done, but certainly as much as we can,” O’Donnell said.

Although changes made after 5 p.m. will not be considered in judging the games, the groups are allowed to continue working on their games and upload an improved version after the deadline.

Regardless of the final product, many participants considered the Global Game Jam a worthwhile experience.

“I’m going to be seeking a career in the game industry, and it gives me a whole other experience to what the industry’s like,” Treadway said. “And it’s a whole lot of fun.”