How To Survive At Game Jams
Just a few survival tips for making it through a game jam.
Gather your tools, before you embark on your adventure. One tool for each job.
Play to your strengths. Especially true if you're a lone developer.
Don't make the next GTA! Seriously, you have less than 2 days.
Remember to take breaks.
Especially if you hit a brick wall. It is actually counter-productive to continue banging your head against the same brick wall.
Go take a shower. Grab a bite to eat. Go for a small walk.
Often you'll come across the solution when you take yourself out of the situation.
Remember to function.
Eat, drink and sleep as normal, else you will likely not function well at all.
Be mindful.
Especially of those around you. No point making it through a game jam with no one left fighting your corner!
Keep your game simple.
NO!.. even simpler than that. Trust me it is better to create a game you are able to finish, than an over elaborate one that you cant.
Get your game working before you add things like sound, fancy effects etc.
There is no point wasting your time and resources adding things in if your game idea doesn't gel as well as you first planned or hoped.
Don't allow it to evolve into a monster.
Often referred to as feature creep. Don't keep adding extra stuff. Take some time to plot out your game initially.
STICK TO THE ORIGINAL PLAN.
Cut it out.
Be prepared to lose lots of the fluff. That's anything from dynamic lighting, to the 1000 spells you planned to add, and yes those 300 levels you wanted to make is too ambitious.
Better to have 5 well executed levels than 100 you rushed to the finish line
Remember to test it!
Last thing you need is a game-breaking bug when you put it out there. I thought I'd done enough the last Game Jam I did
and nope, a few sneaky bugs made it through, causing some players unable to progress in certain situations.
Finally don't aim for perfection otherwise it'll never get finished… and DONT cheat, you'll only cheat yourself, remember Big Brother is watching you.
Some questions to keep asking yourself along the way.
Am I able to make this game?
Will I have enough time to finish making this game?
Is my game idea fun?
Is it fun now that tested the idea?
Is it still fun to play after you've made it?
Have you tested it for bugs?
Has someone else tested it?
Game Jams offer game developers a whole heap of rewards such as the experience of managing a game project, to awesome and highly valuable feedback give by the many people that will play your game.
On that note. I wish the best of luck to all those who are about to game jam.
If you have any survival tips / experiences of your own please comment below. Know someone about to take on a Game Jam? send them this link!
LiamTwose.com
2017
