What is a Game Jam? a Game Jam is the perfect excuse to finally do that game idea you've had in your mind for ages.

tl;dr, It's an event where you make games in a short time, normally a couple days, or even a month! but large deadlines create laziness and you can easily fall into the pitfall of wanting things to be perfect, and I think the best way to plant the seeds of creativity on everyone is to just do things. They can be chicken scratches using copyrighted music and made in excel, but it's gonna be a game, it's gonna be a tangible thing others can interact with and the proof that you can do anything in life with the right mindset.

"But how do I make game?"

I think the process of making a game is frankly mistified. It's not complicated at all. Hard? Sure, if it's something you want to sell. You're gonna shed tears and sweat as you try to reach the finish line. But the act of making a game... making a game is just like cooking: A number of steps and tasks you do in order to make something work  - which is also the very rough definition of an algorithm :)

Your lunch might not make The Screaming Chef of Memes proud, but it exists and you ate it, and you possibly liked it.

So anyway, how to make game? A game in the simplest terms is something that requires interaction in order to keep it going. With this you just need to think how to keep players glued to something, anything. It could be a puzzle, a great story with outcomes or alternative scenarios, accumulate points doing something, anything.

So here are some beginner friendly ways to start making the most basic games you can think of.

You can do a one page table top game. This >subreddit has a bunch of one page games made by hobbyists. All they needed was a word processor to write it down. You can use Google Docs if you have a Google account, Microsoft Word, whatever you have that allows you to write. Do it in paper and take a picture, I don't care. As long as we can play it.

You can do a Visual Novel. Visual Novel is a genre where the story is the most important part, but it allows you to change the course of events by taking decisions, or get creative and do all kinds of things using math and other tricks. For this, you can use a software called Ren'Py - a powerful tool used by both hobbyists and professional visual novel studios in japan and all over the world. It allows you to make a software where the user has to click in order to see the next text, but it also allows you to display images, input text, save variables and every other basic programming thing you can think of.

For example, you could create a visual novel where every choice increases points in variables called Good, Bad and Ugly, and then trigger an ending based on which variable had the bigger number. 

Interactive Fiction is a great way to do narrative games with just text. Ever thought of making something like the legendary Zork? You can, both with Ren'Py and this fantastic tool called Twine. It's free, you can do juicy text-only games, can export as a simple HTML file and best of all, it has an interface that allows you to have full control of where the story goes! Please check it out, it's the perfect gateway for first timers.

Another great tool is RPG Maker. This program is paid, and I'm not condoning piracy but I frankly don't care if you do end up doing that. With this software you can create RPG's in the style of the ever popular Final Fantasy titles on the SNES. HOWEVER, you can do anything you want. RPG Maker, even if you don't have any battles, will allow you to draw a map, walk on it and trigger dialogue, so you can easily do a walking simulator in the vein of cult classics like Yume Nikki, or an edgy yet-legendary piece of media like Super Columbine RPG.

Now, this Jam is focused on those who have never made a game or have any idea of how to make them. The goal here is to get used to the idea that you can finish something that seemed unreachable to you, and hopefully spark a passion you didn't know you had. With this in mind, I won't go into detail when it comes to other tools. If you know them you probably already know how to make a game, yet you're likely stuck - and you're in luck! this jam is just for you as well. When you have limited tools, no expectations whatsoever, friends who will play what you do, and an idea that's burning to come out of you nothing else will matter, a game will be finished by the end of this game jam.

Heck, you can even make a game using Discord. You can create a server where you can use all kinds of third party bots. There are bots that let users roll a dice and play music, so honestly, your imagination is the real limit for you. 

Now, this explanation on how to make games is closely related to the rules of this Jam:

It can be anything and use anything you want. With this I mean it. It can be a pen and paper game or a math-based game made in notepad, the idea is that you make whatever you want in three days, and post it here even if it's not finished. We will all play it and have fun.

Don't let pretty pictures and fancy effects fool you, games can be anything you want them to be. You just need text and imagination when it comes down to it, the rest is just an extra bonus.

I'm assuming you honestly have no idea how to start or even how to use the tools to make games, which is why i'm encouraging you to use literally anything you can think of as long as we are able to play it.

Need graphics and sound for your game? Please check the website below, it's full of resources for you to use without cost or pesky copyright stuff.

https://opengameart.org/

"Is there any reward for me if I win?"

The reward is that you did something you're proud of and that your friends got to enjoy. The Game Jam will last for three days, and the winner is determined by other participants playing and voting.

How to survive a game jam

Jam survival comes down to two basic problems; personal survival, and project survival.

For the first issue, keep in mind you’ll want to optimize your time as much as possible. This means dealing with any tasks in advance where possible, having quick, nutritious meals lined up in advance, and a readily available supply of caffeine. It can be tempting to cut sleep to a minimum, but this is typically counterproductive. Personally I tend to sleep a bit longer during jams, as coding all day is mentally exhausting.

As for the game itself, time waits for no-one. Your idea should be small in scope, with flexibility. For example, if you were to make a platformer, plan for something simple with a few ideas you might add if you have time, then prioritize the work with the last things being the least important. An easy example here is enemy count; you might consider 4 enemies the core minimum, plan for 6, with ideas for 8, then at the last day you run out of time and only ship the core 4 and one extra. These kinds of flexibility ensure you always ship a game, even if it’s not the final form. You should apply this to as many areas as possible, and prioritize work accordingly. It’s also important to leave time for polish, as it has a drastic effect on game feel.

At the end of the day, a jam game is best thought of as a prototype. If the prototype is fun, you can always expand upon it later; and if not you learned a ton in the process. The only way to fail is to give up. 

Some inspiration from outside

This is a documentary by James Rolfe, better known as The Angry Video Game Nerd, where he goes through the first 200 movies he made and how they were conceived, produced and edited. The spirit of this video is what I want to show you: His first 200 films were anything he could record and actually finish. It didn't matter what it was, for him as long as it told a story it was a finished film. No budget, not even tools to edit his videos, it was all guerrilla tactics in order to achieve his goals. Watch this, and then come back, I'm sure you'll want to make some kickass games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiQE_Lb801U