Thursday, February 14, 2013

Game Jam Timeline and Advices



Click Here to RSVP for the Game Jam

Schedule


Friday (Feb. 22nd):

6:00 pm is the preferred arrival time of the jam. Coming early gives you time to socialize with other attendees, and will be helpful toward team-forming later on. We'll also be serving dinner at this time.

At 7:00 pm,  the theme will be announced, and the timer officially starts. That's the time to discuss with others jammers, and present your personal pitches to others. As the ideas become mature, settle in with a team whose idea you like and start prototyping!

If you wish to set up early, the room will be open anytime between 10am and 4:30pm.

Sunday (Feb. 24th):

The timer ends at 7:00am, which will be the deadline for submission to the Game Jam dropbox folder. After all the entries are in, each team will show off their results in the 36 hours, and we will hold a vote for the best games of the Jam.

After the winners are announced, we will have a breakfast to celebrate the end of the Jam and return to our usual Sundays.We will be recapping the Game Jam on Monday, so if you missed out on anything, make sure you come to catch up!

Peculiarities


The IEEE room does not have good cell signals, and doors to the ECE building will be locked during the Weekend. Please put down the room phone-number so you don't get locked out: (520)626-7324.
If you wish to spend the night at the Jam site, please bring your own blanket, jacket, and/or sleeping bags.
There will be about 3 tower PC's in the room for free use. If you want any software pre-installed, please contract us in advance.

Advice


Team Size


Do not form teams of more than five. The communication efforts involved to direct a large team will come at considerable expense in efficiency.
Ideally, one person should be working on the program, one person should be working on the graphic, and one person should try to piece everything together.

Scheduling


Get the game foundations set up by bedtime the first day, so you can jump directly to a good workflow by the time you wake up. Get at least six hours sleep on the first day! Alertness on the second day is extremely important.
In the last five or six hours of the Jam, don't try to add any new features unless your game is near complete. Also, use placeholder art!

Game Design


The most valuable way to learn about design is play-testing, and every attendee is a potential play-tester! The first-and-foremost priority should be to make sure that the game is fun, so take any chance you get to show your game to other designers!

Rapid-development Tools


While having tools like Game Maker and Construct is not required, they certainly make your life much easier. Avoid developing 3D games if you don't have considerate amount of experience in the area.

The upcoming meetings on the 18th will discuss the Jam in more detail, including helpful resources for creating or finding images and sounds, and a brief overview of rapid game development tools.

Happy jamming!

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