Game Design & Development Club | Fall 2026

We are Game Design & Development @ Berkeley, also known as GDD! We've been the central hub for all game development-related affairs on campus for over a decade. It's our mission to help uplift and grow the local game development community, as we share knowledge in our DeCal, provide insights into the industry with guest speakers, and of course, facilitate the development of games right here on campus with semesterly game jams and community support! We believe game development is uniquely multidisciplinary, and a great craft for hobbyists, dabblers, and industry aspirants. Your financial support will help us afford equipment to help with student showcases, cover prizes for our semesterly game jam, and let us subsidize tickets for our members to go to the Game Developers Conference early next year!Dan Salvato Industry Speaker Event, Spring 2026

Our three goals as an organization are:

• Creating a space to foster a community for those interested in game design and development.
• Getting more people interested in game design and development.
• Providing a support pipeline that will enable everyone to work on their own games, including industry events, workshops, and game jams.

Events Throughout the Semester:

• Recruitment Events
  • Sproul Tabling: Sproul tabling is our main form of recruiting new potential members, where we set up our table on Sproul Plaza, and pass out flyers to interested students as well as going up to and talking about what GDD does as a plan (primarily the party system and the decal system) and navigating them to our club’s discord if they are interested.
    Calapalooza Fall 2024
  • Info Sessions: An info session where current members of GDD talk about what GDD does as a club, and as a decal, where more information regarding how to join, what the party system is, what type of events are planned for the semester, etc are provided to potential members who come to the session.Info Session Fall 2026
• Project-Centered Events 
  • Bear Jams: Bear Jams is our once-a-semester 48 hour game jam! A game jam is a game development marathon, where developers work together or alone to design, develop, and publish a game over the course of a limited timeframe – in our case, one weekend! GDD staff then streams every game over the course of the next week, giving our feedback as seasoned game developers.
  • End-of-Semester Showcase: Our big, fancy, end-of-semester Showcase! This is our largest event by far and is a way to show what members of the Berkeley game development community have achieved over the course of the semester. There are individual booths for each game allowing students to playtest and enjoy the results of everyone’s hard work, creativity, and dedication.Final Showcase Spring 2024
• Industry Events
  • Industry Speakers: Industry speaker events are where we have prominent members from big-name video game development companies come out talk about how it is working in the industry, how to break into the industry, and going over what each role contributes to a team, as well as providing a way for members to connect and network with the speakers.
  • Workshops: Workshops hosted by our in-club staff where they go over general topics for interested students, and topics can vary from character design to programming to music. These are designed to be very beginner friendly and serves as a way for members to gain some basic foundational understanding of a broad array of topics.
• Social Events
  • Game Tournaments: We host casual tournaments of couch competitive games with silly prizes at the end!
  • Internal Social: An internal social/retreat for executive members where we travel outdoors as a way to get to know each other in a more informal and social environment, and to create a more casual bond amongst the staff team.
  • Round 1 Trip: At the end of the semester, the club takes a trip to the nearest Round 1 Arcade for a change of pace!GDD Staff Outing @ Golden Gate Park Fall 2026

This semester we're trying something extra ambitious: We want to subsidize people's passes to the Game Developers Conference (GDC) which will happen March next year. GDC is an annual gathering of professional game developers from around the world, packed with showcases, talks/lectures, and plenty of people to network with. It's a true celebration of game development culture, and all of our members that have gone in the past can vouch for how inspiring and useful of an experience it was. The tickets are not cheap, however, so we'd like to be able to give as many people as possible the opportunity to experience GDC.

We're asking now because ticket sales are available with a heavy early bird discount, so we're trying to get people reimbursed by early December! Our goal this cohort is $1000. Here's how we're spending that:

1. $100 - Bear Jams Prizes. We like to keep a small monetary prize pool to increase the competitive spirit of Bear Jams.
2. $200 - Showcase Equipment. We often find at the final showcase that people need mice or controllers. We'd like to increase our club inventory to help provide for them.
3. ~$700 - GDC Ticket Subsidies. Ideally, we'd like everyone interested within the club to be able to feel financially comfortable paying for a full GDC pass.

We will first prioritize keeping the club's internal operations aloat ($300) before looking to subsidize GDC tickets, and any additional funds we receive above our $1000 goal will allow us to subsidize more club members and for even more. We are actively holding interest polls to see how many people are interested in going and how much we'd need to compensate for people to be willing to go. Stay tuned for updates on additional figures!

Approximate budget breakdown, additional funds will go towards GDC tickets.

If you could spread the word about us and our project, that would mean the world to us! We hope we can count on your support. Thank you so much for your time!

Our Social Media:

Follow us on Social Media!

Website: https://gamedesign.berkeley.edu/

Play our games! https://gddatberkeley.itch.io/

Feel free to send us an email at calgamedesign@gmail.com if you would like to ask us any questions!

Want to make your gift by check, donor-advised fund, or employer matching program? We are happy to help! Please email calcrowdfunding@berkeley.edu and include how you would like to support this project. Our team will provide the appropriate instructions, coordinate gift processing, and help ensure your contribution is credited to this campaign whenever possible.