“Who can say what’s poetry and what isn’t?” (Orpheus, 1950)
Logan “snugpig” Marshall is a student from Edmond, Oklahoma, and is a lover of all things nerdy. He began his freshman year at OU last semester as a Creative Media Production. He is both a member of the OU Mario Kart esports team and the Game Design Assistant for the Game Developer’s Association.After graduation, he aims to join a large church’s communications team as a video editor and producer. He values OU for its wide range of clubs and extracurriculars, which give him opportunities to explore his interests in new ways alongside similar people.
Logan’s passion for video games and movies began while growing up with friends and family, primarily with his father and two older brothers. His favorites are Mario Kart, Hades, and Animal Well. In his early teenage years, Logan spent many hours playing Rec Room, a social VR sandbox game that allowed him to engage with a friendly, global online community. This experience inspired him to pursue both gaming and game development in the real world.
While developing a game, Logan considers each of his projects as small experiences he can finish from a couple of days to a month. When he’s passionate about a project, Logan fully immerses himself in his work.He loves gaming and creating games because they allow him to become fully engage in another world. Today, Logan has released 22 small games on itch.io and has even won several awards–most recently “Clamber,” which earned “Best Theme Interpretation” for GDA’s Dozen Days Game Jam last semester.
While he’s proud of every game he’s released, BILL: The Final Bountystands out in particular. Created for a month-long game-jam, BILLwas one of his first projects with a focus on art and game feel. The project taught him a great deal about time management, prioritization and the importance of feedback. As participants consistently shared progress on Discord, and the judges hosted weekly feedback streams before submissions closed, it made the entire process especially engaging, making it his favorite game jam experience. While some mechanics were difficult to implement, Logan believes that the biggest success was making it extremely fun to play.
Ultimately, Logan’s hard work placed him 53rd overall out of 85 entries.
During Camp Crimson, his first week on campus, Logan signed up for a Mario Kart tournament and placed second. The following week, he competed in another tournament and won. By that point, he had already spoken with Michelle about joining the esports team, who serves as his Coach.
Esports has changed Logan’s perspective on both gaming and game development. As a game designer, he finds it fascinating to see how a game designed for single player can be adapted for two-team competition, along with witnessing the unintended consequences of that design in real time. As a gamer, the experience has shown him just how rewarding strong teamwork can be.
Though Logan isn’t seeking a career in esports or gaming, he enjoys the freedom that comes from keeping game creation as a hobby. However, he hopes these experiences help him meet more like-minded people and keep learning.
The biggest thing he recommends for those attempting to get into game development is to “Just do it! Just make games, just play them!” He says that the ability to be teachable is the most important skill when learning any hobby. One has to recognize that learning well takes time and that one will fail many times along the way. Knowing how to learn from that means anyone and everyone can learn anything.
To see all of Logan’s games, you can find them here.
