JONAH - JUNIOR

Combining their love of creative projects, video games, and their wit, Jonah is designing and programming a video game that adapts another one of their passions: theater. Jonah has participated in Prep’s theater program in many capacities and is ready to bring the world of Macbeth to life in a new way. What first began as an idea about writing and directing a play has evolved into the expansive and technical world of video games. Although there are many games that have been adapted into films or theater performances, there are little to no games that adapt a theater performance into a video game. A passionate actor, programmer, and gamer, Jonah shared, “I believe video games can and should be considered works of art, requiring countless time and talent to produce.” With innovation on their side, Jonah will be exploring uncharted territory through the Odyssey Scholars Program, well-prepared with curiosity and passion. Keep an eye out for Toil and Trouble (working title), releasing on Steam in 2026.

 

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER - Two-for-One Special

 

Hello, one and all! My name is Jonah Gutow and I will be adapting William Shakespeare’s Macbeth as a video game as part of the Odyssey Scholars Program. These past two months have been quite eventful. When I first entered the program in August, I did a complete U-turn on my subject. While my original plan was to write a play about video game development, I soon realized that my interests lay in the complete inverse: video game development based around stageplay!

Armed with this new direction, I got to work. After completing my elevator pitch, I got in contact with a game developer whom I plan to interview. Arnold Brown, the stage combat teacher/volunteer at Prep, agreed to help me make sure the gameplay was accurate to real sword fighting. To top it all off, I made a level in DOOM (1993, id Software) in order to practice my level design skills (photos of the level are below). I plan to get feedback from the DOOM community on what the level does well and does poorly, thus allowing me to gauge my current level design ability. All in all, this was a pretty productive two months!