1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?
Hi, I am James, I am a game design student at NHTV (Netherlands)
2. Did you participate in the last jam we held? If so, what do you plan on doing better this time? If not, what's your reason for joining?
No I did not, I am joining this time around mainly to have something to keep me busy during the summer, and of course to try out some new tools (more about this on answer to question #6)
3. What games are your favorites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?
Spyro the Dragon, Sly Raccoon, Kingdom Hearts, Assassin's Creed, and The Elder Scrolls
4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?
I have been making games for roughly three years now, in my first year I went from trying to build 2D games in GameSalad to trying 3D games in Unity, I made nothing playable back then, but I was still getting the basics of how to build a game back then
Two years ago I joined NHTV, I have since worked on 8 different proper game projects made in Unity 3D, and became very proficient with that engine
I switched to Unreal Engine at the beginning of this year, and worked on 3 projects with it so far, and it is now currently my engine of choice.
5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!
I like videogames (duh)
I like computers and built my own and even made a mini cabinet with a raspberry pi.
I like TV series especially scifi and fantasy, and I am a proud Whovian
I also enjoy doing video editing, I used to do it a lot in high school, less since I started university, but I started again lately doing trailers for my games
I always wished I could draw, the thing is when it comes to programming it's about logic, the moment I get how something works I go from having no idea what I am doing to be able to do something perfectly, drawing well would take me insane amount of practice, and I am not patient enough
I sing sometimes, everybody who ever heard me knows I am terrible at it, but I still try to practice once a week
6. What are your goals for this game jam?
As hinted in answer to question #2, I come into this jam with the goal of learning new tools.
My main goal is to learn a new engine, and I am thinking of either either Amazon Lumberyard or CryEngine
I would also like to use this occasion to try out Magica Voxel and Asset Forge, for what I understood from reading the rules of the Jam, using the latter should be permitted
Finally, I would like to create something for HTC Vive, I have been postponing doing so for a long time now
7. Any advice to new jammers (if you're a veteran)?
Planning in my opinion can be very important even in a jam, the desire to go straight into building the game is strong, but I believe it is best to make a list of things you need to build and do to create your game, estimate how long they will take, plan when to do what, and give yourself deadlines all throughout the jam, this includes the initial brainstorming, do not spend too long waiting for the perfect idea, just spend enough time sorting out a good idea which you can actually start working on
Even tho we have two weeks, I would suggest trying to avoid big concepts, keep it small, and think about what the core experience of your game will be, to discover this you must take your concept, whatever it might be, and start removing elements from it, until all that's left are a few mechanics that are essential to your game, this core gameplay is what needs to work for the player to be engaged, you can add elements back to it later you will have time, but game development start with getting those few mechanics right
Finally, once you have these contained core mechanics figured out, I advise making quick prototypes for them in your engine of choice, it is very important figuring out early on that you can actually build your game idea, you might encounter a technical issue and have to scrap a mechanic and possibly the entire concept, better figure that out sooner than later.