Some games I've made
and things I've learned
from game jams

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Who am I?

I've worked on some games you might have heard of

My current project (and its engine)
grew out of a game jam

Over the years, I've participated in or been involved with a few jams

Which has resulted in a bunch of games

What is a game jam?

A game jam is an event that...

• Brings developers together
• To make games
• With interesting constraints

7DFPS 2012
FLAT

FLAT Gameplay

7DFPS 2012 Learnings

• I can make cool games
• Collaborating with talented people grows your skills
• Inspiration for something new can come from the past
• Post-jam polish is a good way to reflect on your work
• Anything you can automate gives you more time to make other stuff
• Having plans for how to handle significant events (a team member becomes unavailable) reduces the impact

7DFPS 2013
Dance

Dance Gameplay

7DFPS 2013 Learnings

• If you plan ahead, you can hit the ground running
• Game jams can be a safe space to explore new tech
• You can't meaningfully iterate until your game loop is in place
• Fun tasks can be used to offset the boringness of less-fun tasks
• All-nighters cost more time/efficiency than they grant
• Readable mechanics can be important for accessibility
• Modular content can get you up and running faster (and is easily expanded)
• Game jams are about embracing constraints, but also feel free to throw them out the window if it empowers you

Amnesia Fortnight 2014
Organiser, Bad Golf: Community Edition

Bad Golf: Community Edition Gameplay

Amnesia Fortnight 2014 Learnings

• An open contribution policy can work for a game jam
• Giving people an outlet for existing enthusiasm can have cool results
• Community management and team management require different approaches
• Sometimes people aren't good at finding/pursuing tasks on their own
• It's helpful to have someone who's responsible for knowing the status of stuff
• Piggybacking on a known developer's gig (with their blessing) can lead to interesting opportunities

7DFPS 2014
Winter's Wake

Winter's Wake Gameplay

7DFPS 2014 Learnings

• Game jams can let you explore a concept enough to know whether it's worth pursuing more seriously
• Making your own tech can be empowering and isn't so hard
• It's important to have solid awareness of team members' abilities and availaibility. Communication is critical!
• It doesn't hurt to prototype mechanics in a non game-specific way ahead of time
• It's better to spend time doing work than writing blog posts
• Don't get stuck hunting elegant solutions - do hack fixes, make notes and move on (you can come back and solve mysteries later)

AdventureJam 2015
Above The Waves

Above The Waves Gameplay

AdventureJam 2015 Learnings

• Puzzle dependency charts can be a super helpful tool
• Feedback on player actions is important
• Creating concept art that can serve as placeholder art can help speed up art production
• Having fallback options for large work items lets you be more flexible when time gets tight
• Being aware of your game's critical path helps you understand the impact of changes and make better decisions on the fly

TasJam 2015
Voices of the Past

Voices of the Past Gameplay

TasJam Learnings

• A migraine during a 36 hour game jam is a big handicap
• Game jams can be a fun way of leaveraging feature development
• Game jams can be fun places to explore new roles
• Taking time to let ideas simmer after brainstorming can be helpful for themed jams
• Dissonance can be powerful when used intentionally
• It's easy to accidentally let placeholder content slip through - make sure that placeholder stuff is appropriate to ship!

TasJam For Health 2015
Mentor

TasJAM For Health Learnings

• I'm far more excited by interesting experiences than solid interpretations of jam themes
• Explaining your project to someone external can highlight vague spots and solidify the elements that resonate
• Mentoring is less intense than making games

Home Jam 2015
Super Happy Fun Sun

Super Happy Fun Sun Gameplay

Home Jam 2015 Learnings

• Small jams can be fun
• It can be difficult to act on late design insights during a jam
• It's super important to make sure that everybody is up to speed with revision control
• After doing a bunch of jams, learning opportunities tend to be increasingly game specific

Myst Jam 2016
Memories of Myst

Memories of Myst Gameplay

Myst Jam Learnings

• It can be rewarding to pay homage to your inspirations
• If your style is based on something, look to references for additional details - emphasise stuff that supports the "character" of the inspiration
• Re-creating something that had an impact on you can help you better understand why it had that impact

LOWREZJAM 2016
Hidden Star

Hidden Star Gameplay

LOWREZJAM 2016 Learnings

• Exploring new styles can be empowering
• Generated content can let you have broad scope with lower production overheads
• It's exciting to work with people who are on the same wavelength
• Low resolution requirements can have significant impact on UI design
• It's easy to spend more time than you need on lore, etc. that might not be used during the jam
• If an effect only "feels" good, it doesn't matter if it's accurate

The Year of Adventure 2016
Colossal Cave Adventure - Icicle Edition

Colossal Cave Adventure - Icicle Edition Gameplay

The Year of Adventure Learnings

• Adapting existing works to new mediums can require a bunch of additional work/refactoring
• It's important to be respectful when reworking existing works to fit new mechanics/presentation
• Existing content sets can be good test beds for authoring tools
• Joining in last minute in a year-long jam makes it hard to signal boost an awesome event :(

Icicle Jam Zero 2016
Organiser

Icicle Jam Zero Learnings

• Jams can be interesting ways to get useful feedback on tools
• Some jam participants won't feel comfortable sharing what they make
• Some jam participants won't make anything
• Being responsive with bug fixes can help prevent users abandoning projects
• In-development tools are not a good fit for everyone
• People will try stuff that you never imagined
• People will still want to try stuff that you may have already discovered won't work

The Linux Game Jam 2017
The Spicy Meatball Saves The Day

The Spicy Meatball Saves The Day Gameplay

The Linux Game Jam 2017 Learnings

• Comedy is difficult to predict/intentionally execute
• Starting a jam late and making something small doesn't prevent you from making something interesting
• It's important to take the time to get familiar with the jam's rules
• It never hurts to bring a new team member in late if you can get them up to speed quickly

Amnesia Fortnight 2017
Organiser, Pongball

Pongball Gameplay

Amnesia Fortnight 2017 Learnings

• Multiple concurrent open community projects means more options for contributors with different interests/tastes
• Multiple concurrent open community projects means fewer contributors per project than a monolithic project would have
• Initial concept art can help inspire prospective contributors
• Good communication between community surpervisors/moderators is super important
• Conflicts or confusion about project direction need to be resolved as quickly as possible

AdventureJam 2017
The Farrier

The Farrier Gameplay

AdventureJam 2017 Learnings

• Being an "external" project lead is hard work
• It's important to get your central mechanics working early
• Shared design/brainstorming docs can help keep everyone up to speed when communication opportunities are infrequent
• Sometimes everybody gets busy
• Designing for a larger project but developing for a minimum target can save your jam game if things don't go to plan

Summary

Participating in game jams has helped me:

• Explore projects I wouldn't otherwise have been able to justify
• Develop concepts that have turned into full games
• Improve my project/team/community management skillset
• Be more comfortable with rapid prototyping
• Be more conscious about the value and impact of planning, decision making and development insights
• Make cool stuff

Further Reading

Here are links to some dev logs I've written while working on jam games.

• 7DFPS 2012
• 7DFPS 2013
• Amnesia Fortnight 2014
• 7DFPS 2014
• AdventureJam 2015
• TasJam 2015
• Home Jam 2015
• Myst Jam
• LOWREZJAM 2016
• The Year of Adventure
• Icicle Jam Zero
• The Linux Game Jam
• Amnesia Fortnight 2017
• AdventureJam 2017

These games and more can be found on my Itch.io page.

More musings on development and game jams can be found on my Patreon page

More of my writing about games, jams and other topics can be found at CheeseTalks.net

This presentation was created using Stack