what's up we've got a game jam coming up this weekend and i am so excited and i wanted to help
you out if you have not participated in a game jam or if you haven't participated in one in a while
and just need a little bit of a refresher of some good ideas and tips and stuff to keep
in mind during the game so i wanted to give 10 tips of what to keep in mind leading up to the
game jam and also during the game jam to help put you in the best position to succeed and if
you're watching this after this week make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell so that
you are alerted whenever we post a new game jam because i'm planning on doing these at least every
couple of months so i think game jams are one of the best ways to learn how to develop and you
know enhance your skills and figure out what your deficiencies are so i will be planning these very
frequently and i've actually gotten some requests for an ar game jam so if you're interested in that
leave a comment down below all right let's jump into it the first tip i have is make sure you have
the correct version of your game engine installed and this also includes any android build services
windows um whatever you're going to build your game to then make sure you have all of that
installed the latest version make sure you have your computer up to date and any assets that you
think you may be using in the game jam and i know it may vary with the theme but if you know you're
probably going to make a low poly game i would go through and just download some low poly assets so
you don't have to wait at the very beginning you can just go ahead and jump into it tip number two
have a lot of snacks and drinks energy drinks coffee just make sure you just go to the store
beforehand and get some of your favorite treats so you can snack on things while you're going
along because it is not good to get dehydrated and it's not good to forget to eat because i
do forget to eat while i participate in game jams because it's just 72 hours of full throttle
so i i like to have some drinks so i have a big bottle of water that i leave at my desk and then
i have like a big box of goldfish or just some other fun snacks tip number three is to practice
something that you know that you are not too good at so if me personally i know that i am not the
best at audio audio mixing and that kind of thing so i would make a so i would make a small project
just testing out some different audio techniques and whatnot just so i don't have to go through and
figure that stuff out as the game jam is happening i just know okay well i tried this out and it
worked so i'm just going to replicate that for my game and not have to waste a ton of time learning
something so if you know that you are going to need to learn something in order to complete
this game jam then try to learn that ahead of time and it doesn't have to be a super complex
solution or anything just know that okay how do i add audio to the scene how do i add a particle
effect how do i add or how do i build the game so i can post it onto itch that kind of thing or tip
number four is if you don't feel like you're going to be able to learn all the things ahead of time
then join a team or if you're just looking to have some more fun and interact and learn with some
other people then highly recommend joining a team it is one of the funnest ways to participate in a
game jam if you look in the discord there's a link down below you can join our discord and we have
a channel dedicated to teams joining up so look in there if you are looking for a team or if you
want to create a team just uh just write a post out and there will be lots of people responding
to it tip number five and tip number six are going to be alarms so tip number five is to set an alarm
when the game jam theme is announced so right when the game jump starts the theme is usually
posted on the itch page and on the posters social media channels so set an alarm even if you're not
going to start at that particular time set an alarm so that you know the theme so you can
start brainstorming about it if you as you go to work or whatever um if you know that you're not
gonna start right like at this particular game jam is at five in the morning eastern time so if you
know you're not gonna start at five in the morning just wake up see the theme go back to sleep or the
first thing you do when you wake up is just you know have that alarm or reminder there check the
theme and then when you go to work while you're at work you can be brainstorming different ideas and
then when you get home you've done planning so you haven't really started but you've been planning
the whole day and so you have a good little um idea of where to begin and tip number six is
to set an alarm one to two hours before the game jam ends to make sure that you have ample time to
build and publish your game it always takes longer than you expect and i highly recommend leaving a
good chunk of time at least one to two hours dedicated to building your game and posting it
because you will inevitably run into issues or have to create a niche account and that takes
longer than you thought and there's always one more thing where you're running into issues with
the build so you want to leave ample time to do some troubleshooting as well so don't leave
it to the last minute to try to post your game you will not make it and you might not be able
to participate in the prizes if you are late so just keep that in mind tip number seven is to let
your friends family significant other know ahead of time that you're going to be participating in
this kind of game gym so you're not bombarded with calls and people asking you where you are and you
aren't responding so they get worried just let everyone know that you're going to be unavailable
for the length of the game jam because it is very involved and so you need to focus your energy and
attention to the particular game jam so just let them know where you'll be just so someone's not
freaking out that you haven't responded to your phone in 72 hours tip number eight nine and ten
are all about your specific game so number eight is to find the fun so one of the most important
parts of a game is that it is fun you know so tip number eight i have for you is to find the fun
do one mechanic just try one mechanic see if it's fun see if it works don't try to spec out a whole
game do one little mechanic that's really small that takes you maybe an hour or two to build see
if that one's fun and if it's not then try to switch over to something else and you have the
ability to switch over to something else because you didn't spend the whole time building out this
whole game that's around something that's just boring or not fun so find the fun first and then
build out your game tip number nine is to keep it small so once you do find the fun refine that
so it is really fun and all the interactions are really nice and precise and snappy and then add in
other features and especially when you're planning just basically plan for one specific functionality
one specific feature and don't add anything else i know you guys you have big goals and dreams
the game jam is not for that the game jam is for one very refined polished functionality one
one feature that is really fun to do and so keep it very small limit your scope usually you'll hear
you know you you have an idea cut it in half and then cut that in half again and that's what you're
going to be able to make so just keep all that in mind very small it's a limited time frame
and you're probably gonna have to be learning some stuff during that length of time as well
so the smaller the better and tip number 10 kind of coincides with tip number six is to
leave time for polish so there have been numbers of games that get published to game gems and
it's just like cubes or 3d models and you do interactions but there's no audio there's no
kind of haptic feedback there's no particle effects it just feels very boring and bland
so leave time for polish like audio particle effects haptic feedback add a little oomph
and life into your game so just keep that in mind too generally the way i like to structure
how i do my game jams is if it's a 72 hour game jam like this one is then the whole first day or
most of the first day is planning and usually like in this case i will be working on friday so most
of the time in the back of my head i'm just going to be thinking of ideas while i'm working and then
after i get off work i'll be able to start to actually build out some stuff so the whole first
day probably at least the first half of the day it's going to be planning and then the second half
is probably going to be building out you know really basic project and then the whole second
day is going to be getting it functional getting my idea working getting the feature working and
functional and fun and then the whole last day is going to be polish one ish day for planning one in
one and a half ish days for actually building out the game and then a whole day for polish adding
audio adding particle effects making the colors look good giving it that extra oomph and life
and that's what really makes a game fun to play is when you look around and everything's really nice
and everything goes together with the theme and whatnot so more time for polish than you would
expect and those are my 10 tips if you have not signed up for the game jam this weekend i highly
recommend it and if you are thinking yourself oh well i'm just a coder i don't know anything about
art or the other way around then join the discord and ask to join a team in the discord server there
are tons of people looking for teammates that need art skills or programming skills or whatever so
we have teams that fit your skill set and even if you're just learning i recommend just jumping
on an existing team and just learning from them seeing how they work github their version control
which would be my bonus 11 tip is use version control just in case your computer crashes or
whatever you have been doing commits and regular pushes so you don't have to completely restart
halfway through the game jam if your project crashes so version control is my bonus tip
number 11. and if you're watching this video like i said before if you're watching this video
after the game jam happens just make sure you're subscribed with the notifications on and you'll
be notified next time we do a game jam which will probably be in the next month or two so it won't
be too long i want to do regular game jams because i just think they're fun i like participating in
them and i also like seeing what y'all create so i look forward to this game jam i'm going
to be live streaming a bunch of it if you want to just come hang out and aren't able to participate
in it and then all next week i'm going to be playing your games and live streaming those and
doing some videos about reviewing your submissions so it's going to be a really fun jam and a really
fun week afterwards because everyone's gonna get to play a whole bunch of free games and who
doesn't love that so i will see you in the game jam if i don't then um i'll see you next week