For the first time ever, design teams from all over the county came together at the HCPS Game Jam, competing to create the best, most unique, engaging, and creative video game. On March 26, Robinson entered the event, and despite the immense competition, managed to win first, triumphing over countless other teams in the district.
“The competition was very fun. It was about making games based on the theme of duality,” Alexander Cuevas (’25) one of the competitors on the winning team said. “There were many people there using different mediums of making games competing against each other, the competition was a very nice place to see other people’s games and take on the theme that we had.”
Aside from the theme, competitors were granted large amounts of freedom in the way they designed their game, leading to diversity between entries. This allowed competitors to be exposed to a multitude of ways games can be designed, increasing game designers’ creativity as they can now create games in multiple styles.
Although Robinson won first in the competition, it certainly didn’t come easy. Designing a game from scratch takes an enormous amount of effort, and this was the case with the Robinson Team. To win they put in an enormous amount of effort, and it showed.
“We started working on the game back in late January, and at first it wasn’t too bad. But as we approached the March 12th deadline, some of us found ourselves working on the game for 10 or more hours a day,” Game Designer Niko Otero (’26) said. “For a few days near the end, we’d be up until 1 a.m. working on it.”
All of this hard work culminated in much more than a trophy. Instead, it created a fully functioning and incredibly unique game with a story and challenging mechanics that will last much longer than any trophy.
“My team and I developed a 2D platformer called Cinereous: Herald of Unity. We wanted to emphasize the theme of duality, so we chose the Latin word Cinereous, meaning ‘gray’to symbolize the balance between light and dark,” Game designer Caden Coulon (’25) said. “The gameplay features unique mechanics, including shifting, dashing and wall-jumping.”
The game wasn’t just the most intricate or best looking— it was also unique. The game explores the theme of duality in a complex way, focusing on the “Cinereous” or gray that marks a balance between light and dark. Additionally, the game had some of the most unique mechanics, with the various movement methods and abilities making it stand out from the competition.
“The insanity was worth it,” Cuevas said. “The competition went great for us.”
The Game Jam was a massive amount of work, causing many late nights and heightened stress levels. But in the end, it was worth it, with the Robinson team’s effort being rewarded with first place, triumphing over several other impressive games in the competition.