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Game Design and Art Collaboration

Student-Led Game Development

Get hands-on experience with making games! We are Game Design and Art Collaboration (GDA), and we are in charge of a student-led game development community with over 100 active members every year. We emphasize hands-on experience and community collaboration with our Mock Studio.

In the Mock Studio, we make one game every school year for anyone interested in learning and getting experience in game development. Any student with an idea can pitch, and voting is open to anyone! Since our founding in 2015, we've developed a lot of games, all playable on our website.

Anyone Can Sign Up!

We're always on the lookout for new students—we recruit novices excited to get a start in game development, as well as experienced developers looking to expand their skills.

We're raising funds because our students and volunteers need a platform to make long-lasting connections and develop valuable game development skills with broad applications for their future.

Next-Level Game Development

All funds will go into making sure all our students have the best game development experience possible. They can learn not only from a wide variety of guest speakers and hands-on experiences, but also from curated events.

Funds will be used for:

  • Maintaining our website: https://www.gdacollab.com/
    • It's a great way for new people to quickly learn what we're about and how to participate!
    • We need funds for renewing our domain name and paying for the server that hosts our site.
  • Hosting game jams 
    • We intermittently host a wide variety of game jams, where members develop games under a time constraint (anywhere from 48 hours to a week, usually). It's a great way to develop know-how under pressure, and meet lots of new people!
    • Our most recent game jam was the global game jam, which you can view the results of here.
    • For our largest jams, we reserve in-person spaces and pay for feeding any interested participants over the duration of the jam.
  • Guest speakers and workshops
    • We've had guest speakers who have worked at Google, Activision Blizzard, 2K, Insomniac, and more!
    • We want to continue having great guest speakers, and their time is valuable.
  • Minecraft!
    • We have a Minecraft server for anyone interested in our club, so they can connect and get to know our members.
    • We build adventure maps, run periodic games, and generally leave the server open for our members to do whatever they'd like!
    • Funds would help pay for the server's running costs.
  • Miscellaneous expenses
    • We never know what might come up! Here are some of the things we've purchased specifically for the club in the past:
      • Tents
      • Tables
      • Toasters
      • Label makers
      • Movie purchases

Thank you so much for your time and consideration. We thank you for any support you're willing to give!

Success!
Social Butterfly
Congratulations to Grupo Folklórico Los Mejicas de UCSC on engaging their community and rallying support for their project!
Completed
Leaderboard
Night Owl
The project with the most individual donors between 12 midnight and 1 am will receive $1,000. 2nd place will receive $500. Generously sponsored by an anonymous donor.
Rank Prize Department Donors
1 $1,000 Formula Slug 36
2 $500 Pilipino Cultural Celebration 22
3 Tech4Good Student Programs 17
4 Grupo Folklórico Los Mejicas de UCSC 17
5 KZSC Radio 10
Ended
Leaderboard
Morning Mayhem
The project with the most individual donors between 10 and 11 am will receive $1,000. 2nd place will receive $500.
Rank Prize Department Donors
1 $1,000 Cloud 9 A Cappella 62
2 $500 Women's Lacrosse Team 32
3 Autoslug 32
4 UCSC Slug Rugby 22
5 UCSC Fencing Club 22
Ended
Leaderboard
Happy Hour
The project teams with the most donors between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. will take home extra challenge funds! $1,000 for first place and $500 for second place. Generously sponsored by Professor of Theater Arts Patty Gallagher.
Rank Prize Department Donors
1 $1,000 Rocket Team at UCSC 51
2 $500 UCSC Surf Club 34
3 STEM Diversity - Plant the Seed for Big Dreamers 21
4 SOL Ultimate Frisbee 18
5 Undergrads Supporting System-Impacted Filmmakers 16
Ended
Leaderboard
Slug Surprise
The project with the most individual donors between 10 and 11 p.m. will receive $1,500, 2nd place will receive $750 and 3rd will receive $500. Generously sponsored by an anonymous donor.
Rank Prize Department Donors
1 $1,500 Formula Slug 47
2 $750 STEM Diversity - Plant the Seed for Big Dreamers 42
3 $500 UCSC Slug Rugby 32
4 Rocket Team at UCSC 32
5 UCSC Fencing Club 23
Ended
Leaderboard
Indie 100
The project with the most individual donors giving $100 or more will receive $1,000. Second place will receive $500. Generously sponsored by an anonymous donor.
Rank Prize Department Donors
1 $1,000 UCSC Slug Rugby 129
2 $500 STEM Diversity - Plant the Seed for Big Dreamers 65
3 Alumni Association Scholarship Fund 62
4 UC Santa Cruz NCAA Cross Country and Track & Field 47
5 Okinawa Memories Initiative (OMI) 43
Ended
Leaderboard
New Recruit
*Limited to projects who have not participated before* The project with the most individual donors on Giving Day will receive $2,500, 2nd place will receive $1,000 and 3rd place will receive $500. Generously sponsored by an anonymous donor.
Rank Prize Department Donors
1 $2,500 Cloud 9 A Cappella 155
2 $1,000 Autoslug 152
3 $500 VSA at UCSC 97
4 Women's Lacrosse Team 67
5 AIRC supporting Native students' wellness! 34
Ended
Success!
Best in Show
Congratulations to CENTER FOR AGROECOLOGY: UCSC FARM for their engaging and fun video!
Completed
Leaderboard
Early Riser
The project with the most individual donors between 7 and 8 am will receive $1,000. 2nd place will receive $500. Generously sponsored by an anonymous donor.
Rank Prize Department Donors
1 $1,000 Okinawa Memories Initiative (OMI) 49
2 $500 UCSC Slug Rugby 24
3 Tech4Good Student Programs 23
4 SOL Ultimate Frisbee 12
5 Formula Slug 11
Ended
Leaderboard
Mid-day Motivator
The project with the most individual donors between 12 noon and 2 pm will receive $2,500, second place will receive $1,000 and third place will receive $500. Third place generously sponsored by UC Santa Cruz Foundation Trustees Panda Kroll and Janet Buck.
Rank Prize Department Donors
1 $2,500 Formula Slug 155
2 $1,000 STEM Diversity - Plant the Seed for Big Dreamers 146
3 $500 UCSC Slug Rugby 99
4 Undergrads Supporting System-Impacted Filmmakers 64
5 Okinawa Memories Initiative (OMI) 49
Ended
Leaderboard
Mad Dash
The project with the most individual donors between 6 and 8 pm will receive $2,500, second place will receive $1,000 and third place will receive $500. Generously sponsored by an anonymous donor.
Rank Prize Department Donors
1 $2,500 Rocket Team at UCSC 213
2 $1,000 STEM Diversity - Plant the Seed for Big Dreamers 203
3 $500 Pilipino Cultural Celebration 97
4 City on a Hill Press 69
5 UCSC Slug Rugby 54
Ended
Leaderboard
Final Frenzy
The project with the most individual donors on Giving Day (12am-12am) will receive $10,000, second place will receive $5,000 and third place will receive $2,000. First place award generously sponsored by the UC Santa Cruz Foundation Board Opportunity Fund.
Rank Prize Department Donors
1 $10,000 STEM Diversity - Plant the Seed for Big Dreamers 462
2 $5,000 UCSC Slug Rugby 405
3 $2,000 Formula Slug 300
4 Rocket Team at UCSC 289
5 Undergrads Supporting System-Impacted Filmmakers 201
Ended
Leaderboard
Indie 500
The project with the most individual donors giving $500 or more will receive $2,500. 2nd place will receive $1,000.
Rank Prize Department Donors
1 $2,500 UCSC Slug Rugby 16
2 $1,000 Okinawa Memories Initiative (OMI) 15
3 Alumni Association Scholarship Fund 13
4 CalTeach Landesman Fund for Math/Science Teachers 13
5 Academic Excellence (ACE) Program 12
Ended
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