Role: Live Events Co-Founder & Coordinator
Building Communities
Over the Summer of 2025, I co-founded and hosted the Universal University Game Jam with Arsenii Kyrychenko. An event founded by students in game development programs across the country, The UUGJ aims to encourage inter-university cooperation and community building among the next generation of game developers and creators.
Getting To Work
After initial discussions to form the foundations of the project, Davis worked diligently to connect development communities across the country, working alongside schools such as Michigan State, University of Michigan, Tennessee Tech, University of Utah, Cornell, RIT, and Long Island University while representing his home school of Miami University (OH).
Developers, Assemble
Once various schools' communities had been introduced, Davis led the effort to form jam teams from the myriad of participants. He created polls to group members by relevant skills and time zones while maintaining cooperation across school boundaries, organized teams using a myriad of data analytics and spreadsheet wizardry (Excel + Google Sheets), and created dedicated spaces for each newly formed team in the community Discord.
What Came of It All?
After the games had been built, community speakers' events held, sweepstakes & software giveaways announced, and playtesting feedback had been issued, the event had some great stats to start out with:
70+ student developers in attendance
12 games developed and published
8 participating university programs
6 time zones reached across 3 countries
2 Guest Speaker events during the jam
$300+ dollars awarded in prizes + giveaways
Find the jam here: https://itch.io/jam/universal-university-game-jam
Guest Speaker - Ben Ridge
