Post by foreverisbetter in Games Should Be Made DURING THE JAM PERIOD

Viewing post in Games Should Be Made DURING THE JAM PERIOD

Hello, I have opinions:

- I enjoyed the comparatively longer jam. Feels less like crunch and more like an opportunity for a well thought out scope and design.

- If it wasn't for the length I would have not been able to participate at all.

- I don't like or dislike the rule that using previously created art and code assets is allowed. It has advantages and disadvantages. I personally was glad I could reuse a really bad 3D mountain mesh and a few background sprites as I'm a terribly slow artist. And every developer is reusing his or her own code all the time anyways. But then it also allows for basically just submitting old projects which is probably not super useful.

- I think game jam rule sets should be designed for fun and as an invitation to get up and do something. Being able to work in a team is one huge boost in that regard but it also throws all notion of fairness straight out of the window. But why is fairness even so damn important?

Please cut the prize money. This only sows bad feelings within a community you want to foster. Just a few people can win and by now everyone should be keenly aware of the fact that a game jam is super chaotic and everyone has different cirumstances. Some are positive, some are negative. I think winning this thing is already enough of a prize. Add in the exposure, feedback and maybe free licenses as prizes and thats already more than enough. If everyone enters because of the prize money you set yourself up for failure because out of 100 attendees only 3 can win and 97 leave with a bad feeling in their stomach.

I cannot stress this enough: giving away prize money is a bad idea.

RefresherTowel3 years ago(+4)

Personally, I don't think many of the people saying it's strange are doing so because of the prize money. To put the complaints another way, it's like running a marathon only to have found out that a few people got to start their race halfway to the finish line, but their time still counts.

foreverisbetter3 years ago

I'm not saying that prize money is relevant for everyone who entered - I am saying that almost everyone it is relevant to is most likely enjoying the jam less because of it. Or else I cannot comprehend why usually it's fine to compete as a single developer against teams of full time devs. Yeah, there are people like Daniel Linssen https://managore.itch.io/ but I'm 1oo% convinced they use some kind of black magic or something ; )

whitemagehealing3 years ago (3 edits) (+1)

That marathon example is a great analogy! This is my first real game jam that we were able to finish a game in the "allotted time"*. However, semantically, I joined the game jam thinking the "spirit of a jam" was meant to foster camaraderie, build new relationships, promote innovative ideas, and inspire people to make games as a community.

Allowing veterans to be considered "better" than others via an actual monetary worth doesn't seem like it supports these values. That mindset seems more attuned to the word "CONTEST", where the majority of the participants are competing in a cut-throat unsportsmanlike fashion. I think contests are okay, but I don't think a contest should ever be called a jam. (Just an opinion; so, of course, others are free to see otherwise.) Jam rules that allow for reskinning create a situation and vibe that is hardly different from https://www.yoyogames.com/en/blog/gamemaker-award-2020-vote-for-best-game.

Originally, I thought "If I see any more 'jams' that are really 'contests', I'm not going to join them", because the competitiveness is depressing and I could be spending my precious time on all my other game ideas. However, the one IMPORTANT thing that makes me reconsider are the comments that we have received. Someone actually played our game and liked it enough to comment. This game we tried to make in this small amount of time was interesting enough. Would these same people have done so for a game we took a year to make and merely posted online outside of a jam / contest?

Maybe, at the very least, we could have the Clay Aiken effect. You don't have to win American Idol for the people who appreciate your talent to get connected to you. In the end, I feel like game developers, like any other human being, just want to be able to connect to people that understand them, and their method of communication is a game.

I don't think it is necessarily the "losing" (to a veteran's reskin) that feels uncomfortable, but that the "winners" may put in less effort than the "losers", and come out "on top". It's a a strange time problem, because the veteran technically HAS put in the effort; it's just that the effort was put in before the jam, and not many people can "unlearn" something they've gotten good at.

Maybe future jams could be split into experience levels (in addition to team count limits); like "no experience", "1-4 months", etc. . Lower experience can still decide to try to enter the ones with more if they choose. Itch could semi-enforce this if needed, because they would know how many jams you've entered previously.

* Allotted time - What was the allotted time? It wasn't clear to begin with. Was it the submission period, or was it the time since the topic was announced? If it was just the submission period, then how do you ensure that what was done prior to the submission period "wasn't development"? Personally, I believe development includes the concept and design. In fact, in a lot of industries, a great portion of the work IS the design.

foreverisbetter3 years ago(+1)

" In the end, I feel like game developers, like any other human being, just want to be able to connect to people that understand them, and their method of communication is a game. " I will frame that quote. That's exactly why I make games. Glad other people feel the same : )