The Post Online reports that game developers at Ohio University's GRID Lab were challenged this weekend during the inaugural Ohio Game Jam to develop a game within 24 hours. The GRID Lab is located on Court Street, and the 24 hour challenge started at 4:30 pm Saturday.

The Official Event Overlord (nice title), event host, event organizer, and OU instructor, Ian Screiber had this to say about the competition: " You don’t end up with Shakespeare, but you have some high levels of creativity because of the time constraints. ...The point is not for prizes and competition, but to have an informal and friendly environment for people to make games."

The competition had seventeen participants in six teams of students from the University of Baltimore, Columbus College of Art and Design, and of course, Ohio University. Games created ranged from hippies who traveled through time to thwart technology, and god games wherein you grow cities.

The three games that tied for second place are Brows of the Martian Landscape, Zomborgs and Hydroponic Hyperbole. The winning game was I can't Breathe by John Herbert and surprisingly took only two hours to develop. The said game involved dodging spore balls in an enclosed space, and having the option to release more spore balls to increase your score. Wow! A dynamic, player chosen difficulty setting in a game! Cool.

Such was the competitive and creative spirit in the contest that Ohio University Junior, Josh Ende notes: "Between 1 and 2 a.m. I was modifying a picture of Chuck Norris’s head and shooting it at things"

Well, what about you homebrew folks? What game would you come up with given one day?