Greenhouse Symphony: our weekend at the ARD Game Jam

“Breaking Boundaries”: that was the theme of the ARD Game Jam – Classical Edition, and it absolutely defined our weekend.

Together with seven other teams, we had 48 hours to create a game that fits the theme while weaving in two beautiful classical pieces: one by Franz Schubert and one by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

For us, it became Greenhouse Symphony, an osu!-style rhythm game where your effort and precision help plants vibe so hard with the harmony of the music that they start growing wildly and eventually break out of the greenhouse. Don’t ask us why – Schubert’s Octet just did that to our brains.

The event was so lovingly put together. We learned a ton, and we genuinely love the clash between the two nerd bubbles of orchestra people and game devs. No other medium connects as many professions and passions as games: artists, musicians, programmers, sound designers, actors and voice actors, writers, mathematicians and software engineers.

One more thing: during the 48 hours we streamed 28 hours ourselves. Seeing friends and the first people from our community hanging out with us and watching the chaos unfold was beautiful. Developing a game together with chat is insanely fun – we’ll do this a lot more from now on.

Huge thanks to ARD, BEANS Entertainment and everyone involved in making this weekend possible.