(If you don’t know what a Game Jam is Read This First!)
Game Jams can be an amazing way to sharpen your game making skills, collaborate with other people in the games industry, learn new skills very quickly, and create amazing game prototypes.
If you want to hear top tips from expert game jammers, read on!
Top Ten Tips to Make the Most of your Game Jam
- Have time fully set aside– find the jam well in advance and make sure your calendar is completely clear. You can get up, stretch, go for a walk, lay on the floor, but don’t leave your team hanging while you go to a party the night before the jam is due!
- Find a well balanced team. There are dozens of different specializations in games, and ideally you want to find one of each type. For example an artist, a programmer, and a designer would make a great team.
- Choose a game idea that is suited for your teams strengths– Your team will likely have a whole list of fun ideas, but it’s important to talk about what each persons strengths are, and work with those.
- Pick a simple “Core Loop”-the Core Loop of the game is basically what the player will be doing. So are they collecting coins- to buy herbs- to craft potions? Or are they jumping on platforms-avoiding monsters- to get to the finish line? You want to keep your game simple like this with only 2-3 steps in your core loop.
- Make a collaborative list of tasks– A program like Trello or Notion will be great for coming up with a big fat task list, seeing what each person is going to be tackling, and keeping track of what is getting done.
- Utilize Discord– Someone in your group is bound to have a discord server, if not make one! Discord is the perfect space to work together on a game jam. You can drop screenshots of what you’re working on in the chat, @ someone specific if you have a question, and talk to your team in the voice channels. On that note:
- Talk to your team- A lot of jams are remote, and that’s great! It gives you the opportunity to meet people all around the world who make games. It’s so important to communicate through the whole jam. This is where the voice chats in Discord come in clutch. Just make sure you’re using the “push to talk” feature if you’re hanging in the chat or mute yourself when you’re not talking so nobody has to listen to your clacking keyboard.
- Learn about the game pipeline– There wont be a lot of time for demonstrations, but game jams are a great way to learn how the whole game comes together. Ask your teammates what they’re working on from time to time.
- Any new ideas that come up go into a list- It’s common during the jam for people on the team to come up with fun new ideas. Don’t add them to the game. Stick to your core loop, and keep a list of any new ideas off to the side. I call this the “If there is time” list. There probably wont be enough time, but the list can be fun to have in case your team wants to expand the game later.
- Leave LOTS OF time for Building and Deploying– If you think you’re basically done with your game NO YOU’RE NOT. You need to leave a lot more time that you’d think to put your game online, where people can play it. While the programmers are making the game playable online, the rest of the team should focus on making the cover art, the icon, and the description of the game. These are super important if you want your game to look presentable.