Good Stuff Happens in 1:1 Meetings: Why you need them and how to do them well
The So Good Global Game Jam Guide (Devon Digital Community Presentation)
1. The So Good Studios
‘So Good Global Game Jam Guide’
2. What’s that then?
Making a game from scratch in a short period
of time.
GGJ - (48 hours) Submitting your creation at
the end for all to see.
Stimulate collaboration - A chance to change
roles - Meet new people
9. DO:
Get some sleep
(and if possible, do it
at home)
DON’T:
Try and ‘power
through’ for 48 hours
48hrs - enough time to watch all of the
currently released Resident Evil films
5.9875 times!
10. DO:
Watch all the Resident Evil
films
Take appropriate breaks
DON’T:
Work constantly -
become tetchy
11. DO: DON’T:
Eat Your Own Body
Weight in ‘Bite-sized’
Muffins
Bring Food and Other
Supplies
Hello, I’m Jack, and along with my teammates Will and Sam we are So Good Studios.
We’re one of the teams who took part in this year’s Global Game Jam.
In this presentation I want to tell you a little bit about what we did, and a few good tips that we learned whilst doing our first successful game jam.
First off, what is a Game Jam?
Loosely, a game jam is an event where people attempt to make a game, from scratch, within a certain time period.
For the global game jam, tons of people take part from all over the world, with the ultimate aim being to put your creation up for the world to see.
It’s not a competition, the overall aim is to encourage collaboration, as well as bringing together a group of like-minded people.
So you’ll need a couple of things, you’ll need;
Your team - generally it’s encouraged that people form teams at the event and try and team up with people they might not already know.
You’ll need supplies - Any food or drink that you feel you can’t go 48 hours without (more on this later)
And you’ll need your kit - if you’ve got a laptop capable of dealing with this sort of work, you’re very lucky, if you’re like me and you own a stupidly heavy pc, the you’re less lucky.
So this is the project that we created, Henchman Hospital.
Based on the theme ‘What do we do now?’ - A shocking expose on henchman mistreatment
Take on the role of a surgeon at the dark lord’s severely understaffed hospital
‘Heal’ patients in unorthodox, darkly humorous ways
So I’ve got a bit of gameplay footage to show you, I’ll try and explain as we go.
So with that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of six points that we’d really like to share about our time at the Jam, and more importantly stuff that we think is perhaps not as encouraged as it should be.
First off do - encourage discussion but don’t - have a punch up
The long and the short of this one is, in order to have a great time developing your game jam game, everyone on your team needs to be enthused by the idea, and to an extent, everyone needs to feel like a bit of what they want to do is being included. We think the best way to do this is;
Keep concepting until you’re blue in the face.
Listen to your team members, and make sure you’re having your say.
If someone disagrees with an idea you have, ask them to explain with good reason.
and don’t let anyone monopolise your game’s concept.
This way, you can make sure you’ve got a contented and passionate team.
Above all, don’t start fights/talk down to anyone one your team, bad blood does not a good game jam make!
Next up - Do - Spend ample time on your concept Don’t - forget to make a game
A fairly simple one this, but easy to forget; don’t just agree to the first concept you all like, make sure you can also build a game around it.
Some of our initial concepts included -
A game about an rpg hero returning to his hometown only to find that everyday tasks have been made impossible through his crippling post traumatic stress disorder
A game about a team of rpg b-listers in charge of the admin incurred by the hero’s battles a la Papers Please
But as much as we liked those concepts, we invariably ended their discussions with ‘but how do we turn that into a fun mechanic that we can build in two days?’
In the end, you need to spend enough time concepting that you have your basic development planned out (mechanics, visuals, sound)
Of course, on the other end of that, if you’re having trouble deciding on a concept and it’s getting late, it might be worth just flipping a coin and getting on with it, you can make it up as you go along, to an extent.
Do - Get some sleep Don’t - Try and ‘Power Through’
This is one of the things we found really beneficial that weren’t necessarily in-keeping with the normal game jam mentality;
Regardless of how well you think you can perform and how much you want to push on, once you’re exhausted you’ll lose concentration, accuracy and generally be more of a hindrance than a help.
Add to that the fact you’ll already be working longer hours than most sane people do, we feel that getting a few hours sleep is essential. At the event, we went home each night ( around 1AM, the point we were becoming too tired to really advance any more) and got about three hours sleep, and returned the next day surprisingly refreshed!
Do - Take appropriate breaks Don’t - Work constantly
Similar to the last point, take appropriate breaks from your work. Just as too much time without sleep will leave you useless, too much time spent focusing on your work will yield diminishing returns!
When we were jamming, we used a variation of a technique that’s a staple of our workflow, the Pomadoro technique (http://pomodorotechnique.com/) that encourages breaking little and often. Every couple of cycles (4 - 6 hours or so) we stopped for a decent sized break (during which we managed to eventually watch the last four Resident Evil movies) and gave ourselves time to wind down and do some subconscious processing (most programmers will know the benefits of stepping away from a problem for a while)
Do - Bring food and other supplies Don’t - Eat your own body weight in ‘Bite-Sized’ Muffins
A point that we ourselves didn’t follow this time round, don’t fill your body with rubbish! You’re trying a marathon test of endurance, make sure you have the right fuel. After a good few packets of biscuits and processed, cup products, we found our concentration taking a real hit. Our advice, bring fruit and water, and if you can, find a way to get a proper meal every day as well!
And lastly, Do - have fun! Don’t - Not have fun!
Sounds like a simple one, but easy to forget when you’re allocating tasks and time, setting deadlines etc. These events are supposed to be fun, or at the very least, aren’t about having a polished end product!
You’ve set aside 48 hours of your time that could, presumably, be spent doing anything, don’t get so caught up in your development that you stress yourself out and forget to enjoy the experience, as it’s not every day you get to do a game jam.
Also, at the end of the day, it’s not the end of the world if your product doesn’t even work, it’s all about the process (unless of course you’ve somehow ended up in a situation where excelling at a game jam is connected to some very important business transaction, in which case disregard this whole presentation, we can’t help you!)
Note - By the end of the Jam, having fun may not be a choice you make anymore, rather, it’ll be the default state you can be in, having exhausted all your other faculties. Please refer to our to do list from the very end of the jam as evidence.
We’re So Good Studios, if for any reason you wanna contact us, feel free to do so via these means! (Pictured above is our current project, Bath Tubb Pirates)
