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Kirsty Fraser

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A member registered Mar 09, 2016 · View creator page →

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Hey Adalil, thanks for your post. I would highly recommend joining our Discord if you can (links on the front page of the jam site) and posting in there as well. 


For your concern with PlusMusic, it's not a rule to use them for the game jam so sound designers are absolutely still welcomed on board, it's just an option for folks who want to work solo and need a music library. 

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Theme 

Come Together 

Diversifers

Pride Flag Colours

An oldie but a goodie. Pick a pride flag of your choice and use the colours from that as the palette for your game. https://www.hrc.org/resources/lgbtq-pride-flags 🤘

Accessibility Rules

Consider having some accessibility options for your entry. Whether that’s remappable controls, having only one button as an input or allowing players to go through the game at their own pace - the list is endless! Check out the guidelines for some ideas on what you could integrate into your submission https://gameaccessibilityguidelines.com/basic/ 

Pump Up The Jam
Make use of the PlusMusic offer for Rainbow Jam participants by integrating and using their music library in your game. Head to https://app.plusmusic.ai/admin/social-events/18 and use the voucher code RainbowJam2023 to get free music

All Around The World 

Have your team split across at least two different time zones. 

Sustainability

Have your game feature limited resources (energy, lives, coins etc). to encourage players to get creative with their solutions

Lovely little puzzle game with simple mechanics! Congrats!

Lovely little game that you could do so much with! Well done and I look forward to seeing how this progresses :D 

Rainbow Jam 2019 community · Created a new topic FAQ

Why is the jam 16 days?

We wanted to create a relaxed and open jam that could fit into people's schedules, so we aimed for two weeks and three weekends, to allow plenty of potential free time for participants to do work. Feel free to take all of the time to work on your entry or just take a weekend to complete it. 

Do I have to be LGBTQ+ / in the games industry to participate?

Nope! The game jam is open to EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE! No matter your background, whether you're an industry professional, student, hobbyist or someone looking to get started with their interest in creating games - join us! All we ask is that you treat everyone in the game jam with respect and enjoy yourself.

Will there be a theme / do I need to stick to it?

Yes! The theme will be announced at the beginning of the game jam. The theme is just a suggestion to help guide development and we normally keep to a queer theme every year! We also have handy diversifiers to add an extra challenge to the game jam which are optional for participants. Again, these are announced a few hours in the lead up to the game jam. 

Can I work alone / in a team? Where can I find a team?

Whether you wish to go solo or in a team, as long as your game is entered on itch.io to the Rainbow Game Jam then it will be counted. Normally, smaller teams work better for game jams and we suggest a max of teams of 5 working together. If you're looking to form / join a team, then head over to our Discord or our community thread. 

Can I enter a game I previously made?

Unfortunately no. We want the game jam to be fair to everyone which means the games must be made within the jam time period. 

Can I use my own existing art/audio/code/engine?

Yes, within reason. We want new games created for the game jam, so using assets from a previous game slightly defeats the purpose.

Do I own the rights to my game?

Of course. We may ask permission to use your game / art in promoting the game jam in the future.

I can't submit my game on time, can i submit late?

Yes! Upload your game to itch.io and email hello@rainbowjam.games with the subject LATE SUBMISSION and a link to the game.

Where can I share my work in progress during the game jam.

We love a good concept art, buggy gifs or completed assets while the game jam is going on. You can share you work in progress on Twitter using the hashtag #RainbowJam19 and over on our Discord on the appropriate channels. 

I want to help out sharing the word of Rainbow Game Jam - how do I contact you?

We're always happy to get extra support for Rainbow Jam. Whether your own ideas or want to chat, feel free to drop us an email at hello@rainbowjam.games or send us a message on Twitter @rainbowgamejam 

Anything Else?

Email hello@rainbowjam.games , message on twitter (@rainbowgamejam), or post here!

Thread for those who wish to find people to work with during the game jam.  Please leave your discipline, preferred tools to use and a link to any relevant work (portfolio, youtube videos etc) that will help people to see how amazing you are! Don't worry if this is your first game jam or your 100th, we're all here to have a bit of fun for two weeks and celebrate the queer community in games. 

It's that time of year again where we're a month off from the game jam happening and I thought it would be good to get to know one another, especially for the newcomers to the Rainbow Game Jam family! Feel free to let us know what your discipline is, whether this is your first foray into jamming or what you hope to learn through taking part this year! 

I'm Kirsty, co-organiser for Rainbow Game Jam and have been helping out Steven for the past three years. By day, I'm a programmer at a Birmingham based indie studio. Still deciding whether to make something for the game jam or not but very excited none the less to see what everyone makes! :D 

Why is the Jam 16 Days?

We wanted to create a relaxed and open jam that could fit into people's schedules, so we aimed for two weeks and three weekends, to allow plenty of potential free time for participants to do work.

Do I Have to be Scottish/LGBTQ+/In The Industry/Tentacle Monster to participate?

Nope! The game jam is open to EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE! No matter what your background, whether you are a student, indie developer, AAA, hobbyist, just starting, Journo, Artist, Writer, Pokemon Trainer, ANYTHING, you are more than welcome to participate!

Will there be a theme?

Yes! The theme will be announced when the game jam starts! 

Do I have to stick to theme?

No! The theme is just a suggestion to help guide development. You may use it to help inform your game design and mechanics.

Can I Work Alone/In a team?

Yes/Yes! You may work however you like! Just be sure to only post the game once on itch.io

Can I enter a game I previously made?

No. For fairness to all participants previously developed titles will not be accepted. Games must be produced within the game jam period.

Can I use my own existing art/audio/code/engine?

Yes, within reason. We want new games created for the game jam, so using assets from a previous game slightly defeats the purpose.

Do I own the rights to my game?

Of course. We may ask permission to use your game / art in promoting the game jam in the future.

I can't submit my game on time, can i submit late?

Yes! Upload your game to itch.io and email hello@rainbowjam.games with the subject LATE SUBMISSION and a link to the game.

Anything Else?

Email hello@rainbowjam.games or message on twitter (@steventaarland / @rainbowgamejam), or post here!

If you're not wanting to work alone for this game jam but need some help finding amazing people to work with, then this is the thread for you! Post below who you are, what you work in and who you need to complete your team or if you're looking to help someone else put their ideas into a game. 

Ideal things to have are discipline (coder, artist, sound, design... bit of everything) , what tools you've worked in and/or are happy to learn,  a link to a portfolio (if you wish) and best methods of getting in contact with you.

We always advise and have found that smaller teams (no more than 6) work well for Rainbow Jam and to keep ideas small, especially if you're not able to work on your entry all the time! 

We also have a team building channel on our discord if you haven't already joined us : https://discordapp.com/invite/KWBgETE and throw a post into the #teamfinding channel :) 

Lovely game! Hope this is developed further in the future.

Lovely game and fantastic feel of community within the game.

Lovely concept although took me a while to realise that space meant the dash. Controls were a bit awkward to control the character at times but something to improve on in the future! Well done!

Not normally into platformers but this was really nice. Artstyle was great and a likeable character! Well done folks! Hope you carry on with this after the jam! :)

Lovely game, had some UI issues where the inventory wouldn't go away (dont know if i was hitting the wrong button or not!) For future, maybe a popup for which key to hit to interact with things (instinctively I was hitting E but had to back out to the main menu to check controls) Well done on getting so much done in the two weeks!

Nice game! Colour introduction was done well into the game. As others have mentioned - W key for space and had the same collision issue. Maybe increase the timer of some of the levels later on as not all levels will take 10 seconds to get through. Great starting point for a game. Well done!

Struggled to understand what I was doing initially. After a while understood that it was about matching up the 'pairs' but as Reign, mentioned, can leave it in a bit of an unsolvable state at times! Nice and relaxing music!

hi Reign, its just come to my attention that the build that's been uploaded is broken and no additional colours are being generated. I hope to fix that this evening and reupload the game. Thanks for taking the time to play though! 

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[Note , given up trying to keep track of the days!]

Today's progress has mostly been on the polish side of the game. I know there's still some bugs left but who doesn't love last minute bug fixing before submission eh? :P

Worked on the following items today : 

1. improved the start and end screens to the game by getting rid of the grey background and adding the credits on a scrolling text. (see below)

2. added in background music (thank you freesound.org) and SFX for the players death, jumping and colour pickups. I use five different sounds for jump and death, choosing one at random to give the game a bit more variety.

3. Still playing around with the balance of the game slighty - feedback pending.

4. Name change to space spectrum (still WIP?!)

I'm realising now I'm going to have to have a cut off point where I'll be happy to submit the game and work on expanding it after the jam has finished.



For tomorrow, I'm wanting to focus on the following before submitting :

1. Getting all bugs related to gameplay squashed.

2. Upgrading the UI elements to move away from Unity's default ones.

3. Some more polish on the player when they're moving lanes (particle effects, SFX etc)

We shall see tomorrow if we can get it done in time for submitting tomorrow night (esk!) Wish me luck!
Latest build can be found over at : https://kfrasergames.itch.io/spectrum-streets

day ?!? 

unfoetunately didnt have a productive weekend as I was hoping for and I'm now on the sprint to get as much polish in this game before submitting on Thursday night (no pressure!) 

Been taking on feedback and advice from those who have tested the game and have now resolved the issues

  1. player feedback. This includes a particle effect when landing after a jump(still buggy) and the player having a bit more motion while running. Animation may be being added later depending on time. 
  2. Balancing. Player will begin in middle lane and the spawning of checkpoints has been altered so no matching lane colours and pick ups appear. I.e. yellow pickups in the yellow lane. further improvements have been done to the player jump to make it more believable. 
  3. Ability to use A/D keys for moving left and right. 

New build should be live tomorrow once more issues have been resolved. 

Downloaded it to play this afternoon, experienced some fast flickering on the words while going through the game. Don't know if this is intentional or not. Thanks for submitting!

[Days 4-7 there was no development done due to other commitments.]

Day 8

Previous to this day. I had done some asking around of what people thought of the game through gifs that I was showing them. After some discussion with them I realised that I should be handling the ability to change lanes differently - cue the third iteration of how I'm doing it in the space of a week! The player will pass through 'checkpoints' (working name) and will pick up colour. This allows them to swap to that lane where possible. Grey checkpoints will void a player of all colours they have collected bar the lane they are in. This may mean for some tricky situations in where the player may be stuck on a lane that doesn't generate a lot of bricks. Here is how the game is looking now :




Besides this, some changes were made to the code as to how the checkpoints and lanes we're being generated which took majority of the day to get back to the state I was in last week.
Thankfully I've been graced with a three day weekend and not a great deal to do in it so I'm hoping with some testing, feedback and iteration, I can start to polish this game up ahead of submission next weekend.
If you would like to play the game yourself, then head to https://kfrasergames.itch.io/spectrum-streets where you can play in browser. Any feedback please leave below, on the game page or in the discord if you're active in that (@KirstySays in there)

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Day One 

I interpreted the theme for the spectrum with the use of colour and would create an endless runner that had different coloured lanes. The player would have to be the correct colour for the lane they were in and could only swap lanes at sections that offered the colour that you wanted to move to.

The first two days would be spent trying to get the basic prototype done which would allow me to work on improving it for the next two weeks of the game jam.

Progress on the first day went well - managed to get the basic lanes and player movement set up.

Once this was in place, I wanted to focus on getting the areas where the player would pass through to get to the other colours. I managed to get halfway through this before having to call it a night.

Day 2

Bit of a slower day for progress. A few design and technical walls had been hit but finally got a basic prototype of the game done.

Finished up with getting some more art and polish into the game. This was the first time that I had used magic voxel for art. I'll probably keep with it throughout the forthcoming weeks to improve the art and keep iterating.


Hi there,

Thanks for joining us and I hope that you can come up with something to make when the theme and diversifiers are announced just before the jam. Remember there's always the discord if you're needing people to bounce any ideas off of :)

Thanks for joining us from Aussieland Iain! Welcome to the RainbowJam family. Hope you enjoy the game jam when it starts this weekend. If you haven't already , head on over to the discord and make yourself known in there. Expect a lot of development posts in there throughout the 2 weeks - can safely say it's a good motivator! 

Hi Jack, thanks for joining us! Really looking forward to seeing what you create this year :D

Hi there Cole. Lovely to have you here! Please thank whoever was spreading the word in the discord for us <3

Hi Holland, thanks for joining us! Remember to go join us on Discord as well :) (Link on the overview page) Looking forward to seeing what you create.

Hi Paige! Thanks for joining us this year , sorry to hear that you were ill last year.  Hopefully you can find the time this year to make something awesome. If you need any help with anything then feel free to get in contact with myself or Steven ;) 

Hi Ralph,

Thanks for joining us for Rainbow Jam 2017.  Remember to go check out the Find a Team thread as well to go find a team if you havent already! 

Hi Lindar, we've just opened up the find a team post if you wish to find fellow team members in there 😊 thanks for joining us! 

https://itch.io/jam/rainbowjam17/topic/125385/find-your-team Link here for you Cro so you can find some team members!

Wanting to jam but no-one to help with art, code, design or audio? Fear not, we're here to help! Find fellow jammers to team up with before the jam starts on August 19th!

Post which discipline you are (Code, Art, Design etc.) and what tools you normally use to build your games. We advice keeping to smallish team sizes (5-6 people max) to keep the productivity high and a better chance of making an awesome game by the end!

Hi Ash, thank you for joining us! I hope you enjoy your time jamming with us! Last year was a lot of fun and a bit of a celebration of game devs and anyone under the LGBTQ+ umbrella! Looking forward to see what you create with whichever tool you choose on the day!

Hi there,

Great to have you on board with us! Have you done any game jams before or is this your first one?

Hi Stepan!

Thanks for joining us!! I'm sure that there should be a number of groups needing some music throughout the Jam so I'm certain you'll find a way to participate! :)

Hi Ceren, thanks for joining us! 

We'll be having a thread nearer the time for people who need to find a team so hopefully you can find a team through that! Looking forward to seeing what you make in August!

Thread for us all get to know one another before the jam starts! Even if this is your second time doing this or your first, why not introduce yourself, tell us what you do and maybe why you've chosen to join us for the Rainbow Game Jam?

I'm Kirsty, programmer and will be looking forward to actually sticking to the theme this time round for Rainbow Jam Game! Reasons for joining? Last year was such a success and wanted to support Steven this year because what else are friends for?! :D I'm hoping to see more people and with that, the same diverse range of games created and meeting some more of you wonderful people! 

Great experience and I'm kind of loving the character popping off from the rest of the game as well. Think some sounds for when you're walking / running would be good to take away the gliding effect that this has.