Welcome to the first ever
BUTTERSCOTCH SHENANIJAM, the official game jam of Butterscotch Shenanigans!
The 100th episode of our gamedev comedy podcast, Coffee with Butterscotch, is coming up on May 31st! To celebrate, we are inviting our listeners, fans, players, game dev pals, and even wild internet randos to join us in a 48-hour game jam!
Schedule
- May 26, 5:00pm CST: Kickoff event! More details to come.
- May 26, 5:10pm CST: Link to themes becomes public.
- May 28, 7:00pm CST: Games are due for submission!
How to Jam
Is this your first jam? Is it your hundredth? Either way, we've got loads of tips and tricks for you.
Theme
At the start of the jam, you will be given a random theme from the titles of our podcast episodes. We have over 40 themes, so we should get a pretty good variety of games coming out of this thing! We'll provide the theme generator at our podcast website, podcast.bscotch.net, for you to retrieve your theme once the jam starts.
Discord Channel
Do you want a SOCIAL jam experience? Hop on into the Butterscotch Community Discord to showcase your progress and chat with other BscotchJammers while you crank out your UNRULY MASTERPIECE! It's open 24/7, and you don't even need shoes to get in. You can join the Discord any time, even long before the Jam starts, and you can stay as long as you like afterwards, too!
Is your hobby shouting into the void of the internet, hoping to acquire the transient attention of complete strangers? Then we've got a hashtag READY FOR THE TAKING! Use our custom, hand-crafted hashtag, #shenanijam, and acquire those sweet, sweet, life-affirming little pink hearts!
Scoring
This isn't a competition in any important sense. BUT! Getting feedback on your work is a great way to know where you can improve. Games submitted to the Shenanijam will be scored by other participants of the jam. Scoring categories for the Shenanijam are:
- Fun
- Weirdness
- Balance
- Visuals
- Music & Sound
- Polish
- Replayability
After scoring ends, the Bscotch crew will pull down a handful of the top rated games and put together a gameplay video (with commentary) for the WHOLE WORLD TO ENJOY!
Submission Guidelines
To submit your game, you will first upload it to itch.io using the normal submission method. Then, you will be able to submit your uploaded game as an entry to the Shenanijam through the Shenanijam's itch page (right here)! We will also ask for a link to a gameplay video or trailer.
Since the game upload is uncoupled from the jam itself, you can upload whenever you want! But the jam's submission button will stop working when the jam is over. So upload as early and often as you want, but not as late as you want.
On your game page, please include which theme you used for your game.
Game Requirements
Submit your game in whatever format you think provides the best end-user experience. There's a huge variety of hardware out there, so it's always a good idea to target whatever is the most common configuration. In our experience, your game will get the most plays if it includes a Windows version and uses a simple mouse + keyboard combo, without requiring the use of peripherals (like gamepads). And even thought VR is all the rage right now, almost no one (statistically speaking) has the equipment needed to play VR games. But if you have a crazy game idea that only works with 15.3 players using DDR pads and pool noodles with Oculus Rift on your own custom Linux kernel, hey, that's your prerogative! We definitely won't play it, though (and neither will anyone else). But ehhh... you do your thing!
Video Requirements
All game submissions will need to include a link to a sub-2-minute Youtube video. This way, even if someone doesn't have the time or the hardware to download and play your game, they can still experience the magic you created! We have also added this requirement for your benefit; people will very rarely (or never) download a game that only has screenshots and no video. By having some video footage of your game, you make it more likely that people perusing itch.io will take the time to check your game out.
We recommend using Fraps or Xsplit to record video. It should be neither fancy nor theatrical; just a short video showing gameplay will suffice! When you submit your game to the jam, you will be prompted to provide a link to the video.
Co-Sponsors
Special thanks to YoYo Games, creators of GameMaker Studio 2, for helping broadcast this event's existence and for providing the tool we use to build all our games! They've even provided free licenses for Gamemaker Studio 2 that you can use through the Shenanijam -- you can find the link pinned to our Discord channel.
FAQ
Is this a competition? What can I win?
Nope, this is not a competition. Even so, you will walk away having won the experience of a lifetime. The judging aspect of the jam serves two purposes: to help you understand how to improve for your next jam, and to help us find the standouts. It is intended to be friendly and useful!
How big should my team be? Can I go solo?
You can make a game on a team of any size, though we have found that teams any larger than 3 people tend to get bogged down and have a hard time getting things done. You can also go solo if you like! We call that "Hardcore Mode." Also, if you die while making a game in hardcore mode, you do not respawn and we are not liable. We said it here, so it's legally binding.
What if I've never made a game before?
No problem! There's no time like the present!
How do you even MAKE A GAME?
We recommend
Game Maker Studio 2 for all things 2d, though if you are already a decent programmer and are looking to make something in 3D, Unity will be more up your alley. Game Maker in particular is very friendly to newbies -- even people who don't know how to program at all! It also comes bundled with a bunch of tutorials, so you can run through some how-to's before the jam starts.
We use Inkscape for all of our in-game art needs, and we highly recommend it. It's free! Sam, our artist, has a bunch of Inkscape tutorials on our Youtube channel, so that should help you get an idea of how to use the tool.
For sound, you can use bfxr to generate 8-bit style sound effects, and you can find free music all over on the web. Our go-to site for jam music is freemusicarchive.org. But that brings us to the next point...
Do I have to make everything from scratch?
You do not. However, as always, ethics are IMPORTANT! It is your responsibility to ensure that everything in your game is legal for you to use. That means you need to check the licenses on fonts, music, audio, code, or any other assets that end up in your game that you didn't create yourself. Be careful!
Can I use the Shenanijam logo in my gam or in an article, or something like that?
Yep! You can also use it to promote the Shenanijam and spread the love. We've put together a handy license for the Shenanijam logo. If you want to use the logo somewhere, check the license!
Where can I get even more sage jamming advice?
Check out our living how-to-jam doc!
WAIT. I also have to make a video during the jam? But how can I make a game AND a video?
If having to also make a video during the jam sounds stressful, don't worry. It doesn't have to be stressful! For our jam games we simply turn on Xsplit, boot the game to the title screen, start recording, play the game in a way that quickly shows off everything we did (with a 2 minute countdown timer running on one of our phones), then hit STOP RECORDING. We just upload that puppy right to Youtube and call it done! The whole process takes 5-10 minutes, though if you've never used your recording software or Youtube before it'll take longer.
Here's an example outline of what a good (and easy!) video might include:
- Optionally, your studio splashscreen (keep it short, because people just want to get to the gameplay)
- A few seconds of your game's title screen (optional, but title screens add a ton of polish and professionalism to your game, especially if they aren't purely static images).
- Gameplay! As quickly as possible, show off all the things that make up your game and try to give the viewer a sense of what it feels like to play. Remember, once your viewer has seen you do something once they will get bored if they see it again. It's better to have a short video than a boring one!
- Pop up your credits screen, if you have one, and let the video sit on that for a few seconds.
Some things to consider:
- Voiceovers/narration are usually not needed, and often a bad idea. They require extra technical and hardware sorcery to exist at all (not to mention being of high quality), and your voiceover will need to be engaging to keep people interested. Definitely don't "explain" your game -- embrace the story-writer's philosophy of "show don't tell".
- Don't show game settings, control schemes, or anything else that isn't interesting to a person watching a game. This video is to show what playing the game is like, not how to play it! The game itself should teach players how to play.