A drag n' drop collage game about symmetry, identity, and the fluidity of gender and sexual orientation
2019 Games
The 2019 UCSC Games Showcase exhibit halls will feature 61 brand new games developed at UCSC this academic year, by undergraduate and graduate student designers, artists, and programmers. Experiences range from traditional computer games to room-scale VR, and from tabletop boardgames to Augmented Reality mobile games.
Some of these games were created in the setting of official game design programs and courses, others were created as a part of graduate student or lab research, and still others were created by an entirely student-organized game-making studio on campus, the Game Design Art Collaboration (GDA).
If your game is listed below and you would like to make an edit, email Melanie Dickinson: mldickin at ucsc.edu.
Games from Prior Years: 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011

Website: instagram.com/wishuwere_queer
Context: DANM graduate student work
Location: DARC 206

Experimental gay dinosaur game where you can hug other dinos, place flowers and stickers, and celebrate life
Website: jellolin.itch.io/dinosaurily
Twitter: @DinosaurilyGame
Instagram: @dinosaurily_game
Context: ARTG 129: Speculative Futures
Location: DARC 206

VR horror game about a security guard that must escape a haunted museum infested with Yokai
Website: yokai-nights.com
Twitter: @YokaiNights
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 108

A 2D side scrolling platformer where you must use light and darkness to stay out of danger
Context: CMPM 80K
Location: DARC 230

Post-Apocalyptic exploration game that teaches recycling concepts to players
Website: withoutatracegame.com/Trace
Context: CMPS 117
Location: DARC 230

Play as the victim of a government conspiracy (Project MKUltra) in a surrealistic psychedelic experience
Website: windowpanegame.com
Twitter: @WindowPaneGame
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 306

A fusion of VR and local multiplayer where players work together to beat the clock as they break, combine, box, stamp, and deliver different colored cubes as the orders roll in
Website: wacktory.com
Twitter: @wacktory
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 108
Awards: Grand Prize Award

A 3-4 player turn-based strategy card game where players take on the role of alchemists to achieve a singular goal: to procure Gold using only the most basic materials of the world
Context: ARTG 80G and 129-03
Location: DARC 308

Tabletop game involving building physical card towers
Context: ARTG 80G and 129-03
Location: DARC 308

Goofy zombie survival game where you throw random objects at zombies
Website: roberto-ortiz.itch.io/throw-to-survive
Context: CMPM 121
Location: DARC 108

Walking Simulator about PTSD
Website: lucidthreadgames.com
Twitter: @LucidThreadGame
Facebook: @LucidThreadGames
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 230 (annex)

Playful board game where players vote on new rules to add to the game
Context: ARTG 80G and 129-03
Location: DARC 308

Arcade fighter where planets hurl asteroids at each other using their gravity
Website: ostrichman.itch.io/supercosmicclash
Context: CMPM/ARTG 120
Location: DARC 206

A fierce competitive platformer where you squish your friends and avoid falling debris in a crumbling underground grave rave
Website: play-squish.com
Twitter: @playsquish
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 108

A hybrid mobile/tabletop game where players cooperatively collect spells to protect the realm against evil
Website: spellbookgame.github.io/Spellbook
Instagram: @spellbook_game
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 308

A hypertext fiction about a day in people's lives
Context: CMPM graduate student work
Location: DARC 206

Snail-themed dungeon crawler
Website: camsh.itch.io/snungeon
Context: CMPM 80K
Location: DARC 206

A relatively simple, easy-to-play endless sidescroller where a player accompanies the endless journey of a ninja through the skies to explore his story
Context: CMPM/ARTG 120
Location: DARC 108

Visual novel/rhythm game about lesbian farming escapism
Website: seedsoflove.itch.io
Twitter: @SeedsofLoveGame
Context: GDA
Location: DARC 230

An action adventure RPG about feeding cute critters to befriend and protect them from invasive harvesting machines
Website: savorsaber.com
Twitter: @SavorSaber
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 230

Puzzle based programming game where you build and code robots to fight through rooms
Website: RobitsGame.com
Twitter: @RobitsGame
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 230

A cooperative platforming game that explores the symbiotic relationship between a handicapped squirrel and a sick tree
Website: sites.google.com/view/risethegame
Facebook: @RiseTheVideoGame
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 108

A multi-sensory, immersive, interactive, vibrational/cymatic experience
Website: rg.org
Twitter: @pixel2600
Instagram: @rgrillotti
Facebook: @rich.grillotti
Context: DANM MFA Thesis Project
Location: DARC 135

Animal arena fighting game where you push opponents out of the ring
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 108

Boss rush game where you explore a forest while playing pretend
Website: playgroundheroes.webflow.io
Twitter: @pgheroesgame
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 230

A Medieval fantasy VR experience about mixing and selling potions in an alchemist's shop
Website: parttimealchemist.wordpress.com
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 108
First-person puzzle game where you solve the puzzles using time travel
Website: paraducksgame.com
Twitter: @ParaducksGame
Instagram: @paraducksgame
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 230

Sidescrolling pixel art narrative game about grief, impermanence, and traveling to see the sunset at the end of the world
Website: origintrailgame.com
Twitter: @OriginTrailGame
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 230

Cooperative horror-theme card game where players work together to fight or flee a terror
Context: ARTG 80G and 129-03
Location: DARC 308

Puzzle-platformer about opening your third (and fourth, and fifth and..) eye
Website: occocgame.itch.io/occultus-ocularus
Twitter: @OccOcGame
Context: GDA
Location: DARC 230
Text based and horror survival game where you must escape class by killing time on your phone, while not getting caught by the teacher
Context: CMPM/ARTG 120
Location: DARC 306

Haunted house labyrinth of dimensional doors where you use your intuition to find out who among you trapped you and your companions in this space in the first place
Context: ARTG 80G and 129-03
Location: DARC 308

Card game about finding who murdeered Remi the deer
Context: ARTG 80G and 129-03
Location: DARC 308

BE XTRAORDINARY.
A third person action game where you become the superhero. Save the people and save the city. No matter what the cost.
Website: mrxtraordinary.com
Twitter: @xtraordinary_mr
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 108

A 2-player couch-competitive game where one player tries to reach the top of a tower constantly being rigged with obstacles—traps and spells—conjured by the opposing player
Website: magispiregame.com
Twitter: @magispiregame
Instagram: @magispiregame
Facebook: @magispiregame
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 108

Exploration game where one must sacrifice their own comrades to escape a dark cave
Website: gigsabyte.itch.io/lcl
Context: CMPM 121
Location: DARC 306

Customizable fashion fighting beat 'em up
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 108

Card game about kids left without regular parental supervision and the poor babysitter that has to manage them
Context: ARTG 80G and 129-03
Location: DARC 308

Ultimate janitor simulator where you clean up after people in a busy hotel lobby
Website: home.zeynalov.com/janitor/index.html
Context: CMPM 80K
Location: DARC 108

A typing game about being sad
Website: evchang.itch.io/it-gets-easier
Context: DANM graduate student work
Location: DARC 306

Twinstick horror shooter with a theme of mental anguish
Website: inwardsgame.com
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 108

An educational game about privilege where players get to explore real life scenarios in the shoes of characters with randomized identities
Context: ARTG 80G and 129-03
Location: DARC 308

A 5-player card-based roguelike board game with dungeon exploring and dungeon building elements
Website: falseworldgames.com
Context: ARTG 80G and 129-03
Location: DARC 308

Short interactive dystopia
Website: camsh.itch.io/iwbyeah
Context: CMPM 80K
Location: DARC 206

Violence in a dark-surrealist subconscious world
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 108

Musical sandbox game about bringing life back to a fantastical world
Website: hiddenharmonygame.com
Twitter: @HiddennHamony
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 230

Explore empathy by embodying the world around Charlie on his first day at school
Website: playheartbeat.weebly.com
Twitter: @HeartBeatGame
Instagram: @heartbeatgame
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 230

Tower defense game with roguelike elements and level modifications
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 108

A simultaneously collaborative and competitive card game with a Victorian aesthetic that puts players in the position of managing the estate of a deceased relative
Context: ARTG 80G and 129-03
Location: DARC 308

Randomly generated, party based, narrative dungeon crawler
Context: ARTG 80G and 129-03
Location: DARC 308

Natural disaster preparedness game to teach players preventive actions in a flood
Website: thedagames.com
Twitter: @DisasterStudio3
Facebook: @DisasterStudios2
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 230

A puzzle platform game where you use the transition between 2D and 3D to solve the puzzle and move forward
Website: daturascurse.weebly.com
Instagram: @daturascursegame
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 108

A social interactive game where you pitch yourself for points
Context: ARTG 80G and 129-03
Location: DARC 308

An interactive film and game space that uses elements of personal narrative and historical symbolism to illustrate the dynamics of how racism communicates: through our actions and language, our systemic and institutional complicity with racism, and how one might negotiate with racism for survival
Context: DANM graduate student work
Location: DARC 306

Mermaid Arena style Collect-a-Thon where players work to collect the most clams and pearls
Context: CMPM 151
Location: DARC 206

Self-explorative occult divination art game where you use cards and sculpture to reflect on personal questions
Instagram: @chrysalisoracle
Context: ARTG 80G and 129-03
Location: DARC 308

Two cats in a long distance relationship are separated by two different planes of gravity and must reunite with the single thread of yarn connecting them
Website: recyclist.itch.io/cats-cradle
Context: CMPM/ARTG 120
Location: DARC 108

Play as a delivery boy for the local bakery who's too shy to say no to the hungry town watch
Website: bashfulbakergame.weebly.com
Twitter: @BashfulBakerGME
Context: Senior Capstone Sequence (CMPM/ARTG 170-172)
Location: DARC 230

Play as a particle bouncing between sound-waves to the beat of funky fast paced tunes
Website: kittynugget.itch.io/bpm-bouncing-particle-madness
Context: CMPM/ARTG 120
Location: DARC 108

A 2D planetary strategy game where sending your workers between differing timestreams threatens to upset the delicate balance of their lives, but sacrifices are sometimes necessary for the greater cause
Website: rockets-and-logarithms.itch.io/a-relative-shift-in-time
Context: CMPM/ARTG 120
Location: DARC 230

2D walking simulator where you explore the beach from the eyes of a dog.
Website: terrydubois.itch.io/a-dog-at-the-beach
Context: CMPM 80K
Location: DARC 206