On April 14, a collaboration between the Brookdale Gaming Club and The Innovation Network (TIN) brought students together for an afternoon of fun, games and free pizza in the Student Life Center’s Twin Lights room.

“TIN just emailed us. They were just like ‘hey, we want to do a collaboration with you guys, would you be interested?’ and sure enough…,” said Gaming Club member Dillon “Hugo” Galle. “I was able to meet with them. We were able to organize what we wanted to do, how we were going to do it… Essentially, this area’s going to be for board games, VR, and the Switch if people are interested. But the eSports also has space [reserved], up on the stage for people to play Overwatch or Rivals.”

The tables were scattered with various board games such as Sushi Go, Scrabble, and even standard playing cards, and a small library of board games brought by the Gaming Club president, Michael “Mick” Gross, was available for students to peruse and borrow from. The far end of the room housed a projector screen that was later used for large games of Quiplash and Fakin’ It, and a large open space for people to experience VR gaming thanks to a headset Galle brought.

While one table was dominated by a large game of Slapjack, a game involving adding cards to a pile and slamming a hand onto the pile to claim it when certain cards appear (and occasionally slapping other players’ hands in the process), TIN adviser Debbie Mura taught some students a card game called Steal The Old Man’s Bundle, and a third table of students played a calming game of Scrabble.

Games of Quiplash and Fakin’ It, both part of the Jackbox Party Pack series, allowed every student in the room to collaboratively engage in jokes, discussion, and voting for their favorite entries in the game.

Gaming Club president Michael Gross and member Dillon Galle emcee a game of Quiplash being played by the students attending the event.

As part of the collaboration between the Gaming Club and The Innovation Network, the Gaming Club will also be helping The Innovation Network put on a student picnic on Tuesday, April 28.