I have really enjoyed the format and hope they do it again. For the next time I hope they make a few changes though.
- They should ask that the software used to develop is either in the title or early in the tag line so its searchable and clear for the next dev that wants to pick it up. A lot of people did this on their own but spelling it out would help.
- They should provide a template for the prior days to put in the description with the instructions to fill it out up to your day. This would allow for a simple copy and paste from the prior games description and help people not to forget to include the links.
- They should spell out exactly what is and is not allowed in the description of the game. This jam isn't going to be like their videos because they don't get to chose a game they are just given one where as we pick a game. I think this is better as it lets you pick something that you are inspired to work on vs just getting something random. Since we are picking a game we need some way to choose which means we have some amount of information about the game before starting. My thoughts on it are as long as there is nothing beyond describing the current state of the game that should be fine.
- They should ask people to comment on the game's rating page if they plan on picking it up. This would let other devs know if there are people planning on working on it. At which point they could decide if they want to work on it as well or find one that less people are working on. While this may mean that a couple games don't make it to the next day because the person that picked it up couldn't finish it. It also would help with games where 5 or 6 people pick to work on it for the next day.
Some nice to haves would be
- Encourage people to upload a playable demo of the progress and possibly make or link to a video of how to do that for the major platforms.
- At the start of the Jam announce a theme it could be very very broad but it would make it clear when the jam actually starts.
- While I am ok with the 6 day in a row format I could also see the benefits of the submission windows being every other day. That would give people a bit more time to pick a game and also a bit of a break between working on the games.