Game Club

A Game Club is an opportunity for us all to play the same game during the same time period and share our thoughts about it as a community. Every month, we’ll select a game for the club to play. You’ll then play it as much or as little as you want for the duration of that month. We’ll be picking a wide variety of games, so we’re hoping to have something for everyone!   

Once a month we’ll stream the game as it’s being played live by one of the game club facilitators, that way we can interact with the community in real time! At the end of the month, we’ll give you a chance to tell us what you think through a rating survey. We’ll compile your ideas and add our own to give the game a Sci-Tech community ranking that we’ll publish on our website! 

The games we’re picking are all going to be camp-appropriate, and available on at least two platforms (usually PC and something else, like a Nintendo Switch). For instance, Donut Count is available on iOS, macOS, Android, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch).

Everyone! The games, streams, and voting are open to anyone who has played the game, whether they’re campers, staff, camper or staff alum, or community members who have never been to camp before but love the idea of playing games through a Jewish-values lens! 

We believe community is the soul of games, and there’s no better group of people to talk games with than all of you! Games, whether they be tabletop, board, or video, are a huge way for our campers and staff to find kesher (connection) at camp. We want to bring the wisdom and insight our community has during the summer to our year-round lives, and a game club is the perfect way for us to practice #LivingOur6 when we’re not together at camp!

The first thing to do is play the game of the month! You’ll first need to purchase and download the game to your preferred device. We want you to play each month’s game as much as you like (and have free time for) within the month. We’re aiming for games that you can get a good sense of in the first 10 hours or so, so it’s okay if you don’t finish it!  

On top of playing the game, you can also connect with the community by watching the gameplay stream on Twitch and rating the game based on your experience and thoughts on our monthly survey. 

During the month (usually on the second Thursday), we’ll stream some gameplay on our Twitch channel and discuss our first impressions together. If you haven’t picked up the game by then, no worries! It’ll be a fun thing to participate in no matter how much of the game you’ve played. You can drop into the stream at any time! Follow or subscribe to us on Twitch for updates on when we go live.  

(Psst… don’t know much about Twitch? Check out our Game-A-Thon page for more detailed information on how we use Twitch at Sci-Tech!) 

By using our core Sci-Tech values, of course! We will #LiveOur6 and analyze the game through a Sci-Tech lens. Each month, we’ll release a survey on Instagram and Facebook so people who have played some of the game of the month can submit their ratings! We’ll have six different criteria that we’ll rate the game on, one for each of our values. You’ll rate the game 0 to 6 for each value, with 0 being the lowest and 6 being the highest. For each criterion you’ll be answering the question: 

How well does the game… 

• Help you succeed? (Kavod/Respect) 

• Help you build relationships with others/yourself? (Kesher/Connection) 

• Encourage you to take your time? (Savlanut/Patience) 

• Allow for exploration and experimentation? (Sakranut/Curiosity) 

• Support discovery of new game mechanics or experiences? (Taglit/Discovery) 

• Stand out to you personally? Did you like it?! (Our unique 6th value!) 

Rate the games here: 6pointsscitech.org/GameClubReview/

Nope! No registration is required. You can participate in game club activities as much or as little as you would like or have time for. 

Every three months we will send out an email to the community with our upcoming three games! You can also find the full game club calendar (as well as all our reviews, once they’re written) on our game club page at www.6PointsSciTech.org/gameclub/. We’ll also post updates regularly on our Instagram and Facebook. If you follow us on Twitch, you’ll also get updates for whenever we go live!

The three primary facilitators of the game club are Troy Mundschenk (Sci-Tech Game Design Instructor and game developer), Isaac Berman (Sci-Tech Staff and Camper Alum and game developer), and Jayme Dale Mallindine (Sci-Tech Director)! We’ll also have guest appearances on our Twitch stream! 

Reach out to the main office at scitech@urj.org. We’re happy to help answer any further questions!