I'm bad at being motivational, but I wanted to get this out there but I've been thinking about it.
So as I'm typing this we're past the 24 hour mark on the jam, and while there's still a long way to go, a lot of us have done the monumental step of beginning the process, and I just want to say that's pretty incredible in and of itself.
Anyone else know that joke of "The Ideas Person"? The one that doesn't have much else but The Idea For A Game and execution is entirely someone else's problem? I've been like that. Maybe you have too. Maybe like me you have some ideas you've thought out so much you could do an imaginary playthrough in your head. Dozens of little scenarios you think would be so cool to show up in your game. Maybe your tastes, like mine, can be a little picky, so you have this idea fine-tuned into the exact sort of game you like to play.
But it never happened. It stayed in my head. Maybe one or two musings on how to do it before giving up. Maybe just not having the know-how was a turn-off immediately. Maybe creating things was something other people did.
I saw the Jam and joined, and honestly as the clock counted down to beginning I was regretting it. What am I doing? I don't make things. Making things is what other people do. Then it started and, well, here I go, I guess. I asked some questions. I read some tutorials. I started to get to work, thinking the entire time "this is going to be a stupid mess".
I ran my stupid mess and was surprised at the sheer excitement I felt. I played with it some more, learned new things, found a trick and immediately rushed to apply it in some way. By the end of this Day 1, I had some basic frameworks laid out, and I was having so much fun just messing with it. Someone joked I should add something, and so I did, then tested it and see it come to life. I was having a blast tweaking this and that, adding something for a touch (Oh, just had a good idea, I'll put some stuff in now when I get around to making it), sitting back and actually being able to play a miniature chunk of my "stupid mess".
And here I thought creating things was something other people did.
But I'm creating. I got past all the initial hurdles and now I'm in it. I've taken a step beyond Ideas Person, I'm actually going out and taking the action of creation. No longer just pie-in-the-sky ideas, they're potential goals and upcoming features now. I'm making a game.
And you're making one too! You're doing it! And we should celebrate that, whatever little bits and pieces that you have put together right now, you made them. That's your stuff right there. And that's pretty cool, don't you think?