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Using a Jam Player, maybe?

A topic by Alice created 51 days ago Views: 233 Replies: 6
Viewing posts 1 to 3

So, here's a little project I've been maintaining for a while, that being the Jam Player. It's a launcher that allows playing and reviewing locally downloaded or web-linked games without much friction and keeping the ratings and reviews in one place. Currently it's Windows-only, and can run Windows Executable and open webpages; I'd like to eventually make it based on Avalonia so it's cross-platform, but it's ways away for now. At this moment, it might not be quite feasible for jams on the scale of Ludum Dare, but it might be manageable for a jam with tens of entries, or even over a hundred. Especially if all the downloaded games amount to no more than a gigabyte's worth.

You can find the repository with Jam Player and related tools here: https://github.com/Alphish/game-jam-tools
And here's what it looks like in practice:

It was designed for a GameMaker Community Jam, which is hosted on forum software. That informed what kinds of features are available and how they're put together (including an "export to a voting post" option). Not all of these apply to itch.io hosted jam, but they can very well be skipped. Unfortunately, it doesn't have itch.io integration or similar bells and whistles; it would be really handy if you could authenticate somehow and send comments and reviews from the app, but at the moment I don't know if an API for that even exists.

Still, I think with a few quick features (like opening the game's itch.io page) it could make the playing and reviewing process so much smoother, leading to more ratings and feedback being given. Plus, with the order of games presented being randomised (if you don't specifically search for individual entries) some participants may get a bunch of reviews without having to beg for them (which is an aspect of larger jams I find pretty bothersome).

If it turns out the number and downloaded volume of entries is reasonable, I'm willing to download them the day after the jam ends and put together the ZIP with the Jam Player included. It might not work for Linux-only or Mac-only entries, but I think it will still cover most of them. What do you all think?

By the way, here's an ongoing voting with the Jam Player integrated, if someone wants to try it out: https://forum.gamemaker.io/index.php?threads/the-pickled-gmc-jam-56-voting-topic...

Why doesn’t it work on linux? Are there problems with building it? Or running the games? I ask, because I’m a linux fan…

(1 edit) (+1)

It's because the tool has been made in Windows Presentation Foundation, which is a .NET UI framework targeting Windows specifically. It's been good enough for now since the jams it's used for require a Windows or web build anyway.

I plan to port it over to Avalonia, which is more cross-platform, but it will take quite a lot of effort, testing and tinkering before then. Since it's currently a one-person side project, I haven't been able to make the shift yet.

Well, the app runs, but there is no option to select the jam :) No readme on how to use it… As a user, I am confused. Please, advise!

Ah, sorry. The app won't set things up on its own, I would need to collect all downloadable entries and package them with appropriate metadata, but with well over 200 entries submitted it becomes too unfeasible. ^^'

But I’m curious, how does it work? I see no way to add a jam manually, and add games to jam. How do you configure it all?

On the repository I linked, there's a separate Jam Packager project, that handles editing and saving all the relevant metadata (also some quality of life features like automatically unzipping all the ZIPs of the downloaded entries). Once you save the metadata, you can open the Jam Player from within the folder which has "jam.jaminfo" file and it'll show the entries correctly.