Post by Suhail Habib in Share your Lessons learned

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First of all, great job everyone! I haven't had the chance to play many of the games yet, but I am looking forward to it :)

Gonna go out on a limb and disagree with a lot of the points (based on experience in previous jams, namely Ludum Dare)...

- I prefer to do game jams solo because I enjoy the absolute freedom. I also personally enjoy working on all of art, code, and game design, and sound assets are easily purchasable. If I had a "partner in crime" then they would probably just slow the process down. Several of the people who tried out my game told me that the sheer scope of it was insane, especially for 1 person. Granted, I worked for some 50 out of 72 hours, taking a day off.

- That said, if you have no experience with or don't like a certain area of game design, then team up. But make sure there is no overlap. Meaning, don't have two people working on art because it will not look good, no matter how each part looks. Same with code. You don't want to find yourself debugging someone else's code a few hours before the end of a jam.

- About scoping "small", I think that it's bad because it is not very challenging. If you are not challenged, you do not learn, so I always aim for the stars during game jams. Even if it ends up too ambitious and doesn't go quite as planned, there is a lot of value in the challenge itself. So I would advise against scoping "small".

I don't feel like I've learned much during this jam, expect perhaps to make the game more easy... something I also should have learned from previous jams. I also learned something about the limitations of the visual style I went for, and I was very lucky to avoid a massive problem easy on thanks to a small feature of the editor I was using, a problem that could have easily made me not finish half of what I got a chance to complete.

So in conclusion, sometimes working alone is the best during a short timeframe - you are the final authority on your game and you don't have to spend time discussing ideas with people and discard potentially good ideas you come up with because your team doesn't like them.

Cheers everyone and good luck :D

M7md_Ark7 years ago(+1)

Thank you for sharing the good points there, I agree as I always work much faster and more efficient when I'm alone.

However as you stated in your conclusion "(sometimes) working alone..." I guess I was talking about the other times :P

It really depends on your team.

Thanks again, cheers!

Moneim Ali7 years ago(+1)

I have to agree with a lot of what you said, which is why I mentioned it can be so tempting. I also do prefer solo jamming.

You mentioned learning, which is probably the most valuable reward out of any jam. While you do in fact learn a lot from facing challenges solo, you also can benefit greatly from your partner's experience. Not to mention that, should you decide to get into the game dev industry and work in a team, the lonewolf approach can only hinder your progress.

All of that aside, I honestly only join jams for the sheer fun of having to produce a game in such little time, and the satisfaction of seeing a baby game see the light. I wouldn't want to spend any of that time arguing with my partner which idea is better. Come to think of it, I did argue with myself.

Anyways, such a great game you have developed on your own! Congratulations.

rima7 years ago

Great points.
Solo or with a group it depends on your skills and your team.
Going solo has benefits of not arguing with someone else about your/their idea and methods of approaching something. so you don't waste time explaining how and why.
You learn much more as a 1 man band than in a team.
but you risk having tunnel vision ,and you can burn out easily.

In a team people can actually add value to your idea and help out in various areas , this I think is the greatest benefit in working in a team.

To me it all depends on the team I'm working with , if I had people who can work in harmony and have similar thinking I would definitely join them. otherwise going solo is the better option

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