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My Typical Gamejam

A topic by superhardboiled created Mar 03, 2024 Views: 318 Replies: 4
Viewing posts 1 to 3
(+3)

Does anyone else fall into this endless loop? LOL

  1. Find a gamejam with a cool theme
  2. Think of big grand ideas that are impossible for my current skillset
  3. Settle on something smaller in scope
  4. Realize I can't do art or music
  5. Try to find the 'perfect' art/tileset/etc on Opengameart 
  6. Try to find the 'perfect' art/tileset/etc on Opengameart 
  7. Try to find the 'perfect' art/tileset/etc on Opengameart 
  8. Try to find the 'perfect' art/tileset/etc on Opengameart 
  9. ....
  10. Gamejam Ends
Submitted(+3)

I have a similar issue...

1. Enter a game jam (or rather the Newgrounds equivalent; this'll my first itch jam)

2. Think of something simple that I can make within the time limit

3. Get really enamored with some mechanic that I came up with

4. Spend way too much time trying to make it 'perfect'

5. Realize that I'm putting too much time in this element, move onto art

6. Spend way too much time trying to make the art 'perfect', same with music

7. Hobble together an embarrassingly clunky "demo" that I can never get around to finishing because I don't know what I did with the project file

Submitted(+2)

This is why planning and design is important. Make a quick Game Design Document, and list all activities you need to do for your prototype. Only you know how many activities you can do each day. Here is my list example:

  1. Player Movement
  2. Player Aim
  3. player attack
  4. Basic map
  5. enemy behavior
  6. damage system
  7. repair system
  8. loot
  9. inventory
  10. hunger system

So I have 10 main activities and 14 days minus planning. Now I now what I need to do. If i have an awesome new idea, I write it down on paper, and put it as an additional task, which I'm not gonna touch unless all the other tasks are finished. If finding a tileset is important to you, define a specific task to it. It should not take you more than what is planned, otherwise your schedule will suffer. We usually get lost in time because we don't have a defined path, and later we realize we needed to do more stuff to have something playable.

Also, don't try to be perfect. A game jam is not for creating a full game. It can be, but is not important. Put your mind to work on finishing a prototype. Art can be ugly, game mechanics may not be perfect. What is important is to create a good idea of what you are trying to achieve. If the idea is good, you can keep working on it later. Best of luck!

Submitted(+1)

This is great advice. This is my second game jam and planning out my week has made a tremendous difference so far. I'm only a few days in and I'm already starting to have the basis of a fun game. Sure, it looks like crap, but a fun game that looks crappy is still fun. Meanwhile, a crappy game that looks good is still crappy.
My last game jam went pretty well but I was stressing over coding and art at the same time which made things a lot more stressful.

(+1)

This is great advice!