A peek inside Liberty’s game design club

There’s only one place where you can discover new worlds, fascinating characters, thrilling battles, immersive graphics and engaging music all at once — and all while being at the helm of captaining your own journey. That’s what video games can offer individuals. 

There are many video games that are trending and exciting, but usually it’s the people who stream themselves playing them that get most of the attention. People don’t realize how much goes into creating and programming video games, and that’s one of the reasons why Liberty students Israel Ownbey and Aiden Jones created the Video Game Design Club.  

“We both love video games and making them, so we wanted to create a space for people to come together and form teams and design their own games,” Ownbey said. “It also allows us to have a place to discuss the different games we play in our day-to-day.”

The club meets every Monday from 5-7 p.m., location varying, and has an assortment of different meeting types that can be a way to network and develop gaming designs, or just showing up and having fun playing video games. However, the most intriguing meetings are the “Game Analysis Nights.” 

“‘Game analysis night’ is basically ‘book club’ for gamers,” Ownbey said. “We all start a game together, and we discuss what we liked, how the developers could’ve done better, the themes, the storytelling, the characters and things like that.”  

The club hasn’t started any game designs yet, but the goal is to encourage people to form teams with other members and bring their individual ideas to life with game design. Ownbey explained there is so much that goes into creating a game, so members have to wear multiple hats and take on many roles. 

“You’ve got the game developer who does most of the programming, the game designer which designs the gameplay, the graphic designer who creates the digital art, the sound designer who creates the sound effects and the score or music for the background of the game and more,” Ownbey said. 

Ownbey described how some of the club members, including himself, have developed their own games and uploaded them on Itch, an indie game platform that lets you share your developed games for free. 

Ownbey said that his passion for video games developed at an early age. 

“Since I was young, I always liked playing video games, and as I got older, I began to appreciate them more as an artform,” Ownbey said. “I feel like there’s an element that happens when you mix together so many different types of media, like the physical media and the audio and the design of the game, when you mix those things together, you can tell stories in one of the best and most immersive ways possible.” 

The Video Game Design Club excels in doing all things behind the scenes, but the club offers an opportunity to bring these technical skills to light, and they are eager for new members that want to get involved and show off their passion for video games. 

“I think the club is a great way to bring people together and create something. Whether it’s the digital art or background music, it’s a really good collaborative experience and a fun way to share creative time with other individuals,” Ownbey said. 

For more information on the club, email iiownbey@liberty.edu or check out the club’s Discord channel here. 

Wallace is a feature reporter for the Liberty Champion