Nathaniel Yobb ’26 has been playing video games since he was five years old. A monster truck simulator game was the first game that he ever played. Now, Elden Ring is his favorite.
So it was an easy choice for Yobb to join the Video Game Development Club (VGDC), a student-run organization that holds its meetings on the University City campus.
“[I] actually joined it because I found out about the [Dungeons & Dragons] segment,” Yobb said. “D&D is really near and dear to my heart.”
Connor Dugan ’26, club president, said that the club is meant to bring people together through playing a variety of games.
“We’re an organization that focuses on creating connections through the mutual love for video games, tabletop games, game development, programming, coding and more,” said Dugan.
The club tries to meet weekly to review upcoming events or learn coding from each other. Later this semester, they hope to bring in an alumnus to give a coding presentation.
The VGDC prides itself on bringing people together to do something they enjoy, like video games, Dugan said.
“I try to create an inclusive community for everyone on campus,” Dugan said. “For people with different interests, we hold events to encourage students to get to know one another and bond over different games, while also introducing each other to new things.”
The club has over 100 members, many on the club’s Discord channel, where the majority of news or upcoming events about the club are communicated.
The VGDC hosts sessions for tabletop roleplay games like Dungeons & Dragons, as well as video game tournaments for members. Benjamin Halladay ’25, club treasurer, said the two biggest tournaments last semester were a Super Smash Bros. tournament and a Mario Kart tournament. The club held a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament earlier this month.
While the VGDC is based on the UCity campus, the group has done a lot of advertising on the Hawk Hill campus as well.
“My ability to engage the campus community has grown because there’s another campus that we can tap into for people,” Dugan said.
Since the merger, the club has seen a number of Hawk Hill students join the club or attend one of their events.
Dugan said that the club tries to host events online to include players who cannot be there in person. The VGDC is also trying to host a programming event on Hawk Hill campus in the near future.
“The coding and programming presentation we had was online and in-person, so we were physically in a classroom presenting it,” Dugan said. “We also had it streaming through Discord for people who joined virtually.”
Halladay, who has been with the group since his first year, said he doesn’t know of any group on campus that offers what VGDC does.
“If you’re looking for a group of people to play video games with, people to talk about video games, then join the club, join the Discord,” Halladay said. “If you want to play tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons, I don’t know of any other groups that play on the UCity campus. Join the Discord, send some memes over, might as well come to an event. It’s fun!”
