Hitting the Ground Running

Roll over, joysticks. At the 2026 Game Developers Conference (GDC), the must-try alternative controller was a human-sized hamster ball. 

“Immediately upon opening, we had 20 or so people at our booth. It was like that the entire time,” says Charles Tyndal MEAE’26, a graduate of the U’s Division of Games. Tyndal and 12 fellow students are the brains behind Udon Uncaged, where players assume the POV of an escaped hamster who dodges obstacles on its quest toward an open window. 

For one of their semester-long projects, Division of Games grad students are tasked with creating an alt-control game. Lead producer Tyndal and his team immediately got the ball rolling. They wanted a showstopping portfolio project that would create buzz at conferences.

“The dream was that you would immediately see the game, know what’s going on, and want to play it,” says Tyndal.

The team worked over the semester, taking advantage of maker spaces and tools at the U’s Lassonde Studios. The larger-than-life idea required time, space, and considerable trial and error. One failed notion involved 800 ball pit balls—the only affordable option for the student team—in an omnidirectional ball-bearing system that, sadly, didn’t stand up to the weight. Plus, play testing showed players wanted speed—and the security of the ball staying in place. 

“They loved the fantasy of getting in this ball and going as fast as they can without worrying about anything,” Tyndal says. 

The team finally settled on a double-walled inflatable ball atop a custom-built PVC-pipe treadmill, with teammates standing on either side for support. The result proved a hit at the GDC, earning Gamedeveloper.com’s “Best of GDC” award—and the attention of industry professionals.

“I was constantly being approached by people from companies I would love to work for,” Tyndal says. “Those people now know some of my work, which is insane.”