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! 

Hey! 

I'm Natalie, something of a  designer / artist / I don't know / speaker / procrastinator / maybe writer?? / COOL KID from Edinburgh! I've been with ScotRainbowGameDev since it's birth in small twitter conversations, but was too exhausted from work last year to take part in Rainbow Jam D: Now that I'm a graduate, I suddenly have a LOT of spare time, and hope to take part fully this year. I recently released a smol free game about transitioning (and trains), and am super into seeing how other people can use games as a platform for queer expression. That, and I'm really trying to flex my dev muscles and create more cool tiny games, so another jam is perfect.

Anyways, looking forwards to seeing y'all come JAM TIME.

that moment when you realise yo didn't even introduce yourself on your own jam.... 

Hi I'm Steven! I'm a programmer/producer based in Dundee, Scotland! I'm one of the organisers of Rainbow Jam, alongside Kirsty! 

Last year i had such a great time seeing everyones work and I i'm so excited to see what people come up with this year!
If there is anything I can help with please don't hesitate to get in touch with me on twitter (@steventaarland) or here!

Hi there guys, I've spent two years at University of British Columbia for computer science but i found it difficult for my learning style to work in a university environment, often noting that my applicable skills are usually much higher than the majority of people in my classes, but my exam taking skills were awful.  I'm an autism spectrum person, who's looking forward to meeting people and working on a project in a group.

This is my first game jam, I'm a fairly skilled programmer whose learned to use unity well, but honestly i'm more of a jack of all trades. I love creative writing in all forms, I know how to make video game music using lmms+an electronic keyboard, I have a decent eye for animations, and i really love game design. 

Looking forward to meetin you all :) if you want to talk about game dev stuff im down to chat often. the best place to find me is my discord tag KelMCcinthay#0908(case sensitve)

Welp. I'm apparently terrible at how itch does their forums.  Sorry to post twice.

Friends call me Cole. I'm an EAE student at the U of Utah, but doing a "custom" path where I'm also studying cognitive psych and music/sound. Someone on the ineeddiversegames discord told me about this jam, and I couldn't resist the opportunity to make games with the rainbow flag fam. Can't wait to see what we all come up with. Thanks!

Hey!

My name is Bruno (but everyone calls me Zushi online so feel free to address me however you want :) ) and I'm a game dev (I make everything except for music :P) and a pixel artist from Portugal! I've been doing this for 2 years but only recently been able to make games more regularly!

I decided to join this Jam due to the fact that I've been through a surgery recently and I've been demotivated to go back to drawing and making games. I tried participating in the LOWREZJAM but I had no ideas at all so I'm trying to see if this puts me back on track haha. 

Nice to meet you all!

Hi everybody,

I'm Russell.  I just recently got back into gamedev-- I've done 2 jams in the last few weeks (my first jams ever!  LD39 and NESjam), and I've been learning a lot really quickly.  I've been using the Godot engine.  I want to try doing a project in 3D, but we will see.  Anyway I think I want to do something quite different than the other projects I've completed.

I will be working solo mostly, but have a few close friends who may contribute to the project's concept and music.  

Hi everybody! I'll keep it short and sweet.

I am a young gave developer looking to get better at what I am doing everyday, and doing that by making awesome games. You can check out my games on my itch.io profile :)

My name is Liz from the USA and I am a Developer, Designer, and 2D Artist with a Game Jam win and cash prize already under my belt for a board game I created in June. Somebody extremely close to me is currently going through transition from male to female and it's been very trying on her to gain support in our current environment. My project, which I've only thought up a name and general concept for (no assets or anything besides thoughts), is called Matter & Exist. It's going to star a transgender character as she finds others and gives them the inspiration to let themselves be happy with themselves. 

The reason for me joining the jam is because I was going to make this game either way. I want to make a game that helps people find the inspiration to be themselves and be proud of that person. I also want the game to get some things a little wrong though too, like general initial misconceptions about LGBTQ+ individuals and address these misconceptions in an understanding and teaching light, not one that invokes exclusion or prevents individuals from asking questions. Ultimately, the game's message is of understanding and encouragement, and joining the Jam gives me a deadline and incentive to complete it.

Hello everyone, my name is Angelica, I was assigned male at birth, but in the last couple of years I have been questioning my gender, after moving to a more open minded country when starting university, and meeting LGBT people

• I always felt left out from the LGBT of my school since to them I appear as an ordinary cis straight guy, so I am using this opportunity to be able to introduce myself to people as a woman and be able to take part in an activity which makes me feel I am part of the LGBT community, I am deadly afraid of being judged by both LGBT (I am afraid I will be called a fake, and people deny me the right to acknowledge my feelings) and not LGBT people (my father is a self proclamed nazi who talks of exterminating LGBT people, and in my country open gay people are usually harassed and beaten up, so I am kinda deadly afraid of those people), so I can only do this by hiding behind an online avatar, and knowing that whatever I say here will have no consequences for me
• for a long time I wanted to express my complex emotions and inner struggle in some artistic form, in the past I expressed some of those emotions by drawing some comic strips to express my admiration for a trans girl in my class, but to her I am just some random dude who has a crush on her, I am too anxious to talk to her, let alone explain what's going on inside me, and she could not care less about it, so I decided I will express my emotions some other way to other people, as it just makes me feel bad to keep them inside

Now that that's out of the way, I am a game development student at my university, I am mainly oriented towards design in my course, but I am also a skilled gameplay programmer, producer/planner/team leading figure, and I also have minor artistic skills, my goal is to become an iconic lead designer such as Hideo Kojima, Ken Levine, or Tetsuya Nomura, therefore I am trying to broaden my knowledge to every field of development, to give me the level of insight a true leader should have to lead his team to create timeless masterpieces.
I plan to develop my game in Unreal Engine, the engine I am the most skilled with (closely followed by Unity, and in the distance by CryEngine and Lumberyard, which I shrug at the thought of working with again), and I would like to try to model some low poly assets myself, since I have two weeks and modeling is a skill I could really use learning right now, but I shall see if that turns out to be feasible or if I shall coup out and get some premade assets if I cannot make them in time.

Sorry if this is a lot of text, I just really needed to ventilate some of my inner thoughts, and whenever this topic comes up I become very vulnerable and have to get it all out, but now I actually to click on the Post button and I am super nervous so I just keep adding more text, I think I'l just quickly post this, then close this webpage and not check it again for a good 20 hours, okay bye!

Hi, only just found out this was a thing but gonna give it a go. 

Done three Ludum Dares as a team artist, and one as a solo project (https://frostdragonliz.itch.io/peak-oil-ld39-compo) so familiar with jamming but not done such a long one before.

Just finished making a video game about growing up trans as part of the Continuum exhibition at Manchester's People's History Museum (http://www.phm.org.uk/whatson/continuum/) which is currently showing until September. Am planning a larger indie project, but struggling to get a handle on where to start so this jam might be a good bit of padding before I take on another big project. Will most likely be working mostly solo but with coding assistance from my game dev wife, and have a composer as a potential for sound design.

Good luck everyone :)

Heyo!

I’m Alison, a Game Artist/Designer/Programmer from Australia.

My only experience with Game Jams is that I did one two years ago over 48 hours. I am currently in my final year of a Games Design degree. Obviously i’ll be focusing on that, but I simply couldn’t miss out on a LGBTIQ jam.

My game’s working title and concept is “All That I Touch” and will involve turning object colours into the colours of pride flags (you choose which flags to use). 

Hi all, my name is Célia, I'm from Portugal, mom of 5 kids,  anthropologist by formation (never had the chance to work in the field though, I was allways having kids, no regrets). 

I'm also many more things as we all are in life and depending on context. Anyway,  I decided to enter this game jam, even if I just discovered it, and never heard of jams before (only music jams, where we improvise). I feel this jam is perfect because it has rainbows in it and a positive energy :)  - and I live diversity. 

Also I would like to gamify a small book that my young children and I created some time ago, and learn to make a game in the process. In addition, I need a time frame, or else I would never finish it, because I have a hard time finishing things. 

The book-game is about a lonely girl and the importance of little random acts of friendship.