Hello, everyone!

The next weekend we will be making an official game jam where we are working. Having this kind of event made a lot of people ask for tips for the game jam. The truth is that even I had participated in eleven game jams during this eight years, I never thought about tips I would give to some who is going to participate in his first game jam. So, I am going to write something up and maybe, even with my crappy English, I can show it the next time someone asks.
In order to do this, I am going to check every game I made for a game jam and think about the good and bad points of it.

The first game I ever made for a game jam was in 2010, two years after I started to auto-learn about game development. This game was Escape from Ice Mountain and was made for the Newgrounds Winter Game Jam 2010.

In this game jam, the theme was: Earth Freezing Over

Playing it over again, after so much time, makes me see a lot of defects I probably didn’t see before.
One of the things I probably wouldn’t ever do in a game jam again is making such a generic novel gameplay. I think one of the cool things about game jams is trying out new things in every aspect possible. Although, the truth is that at this point I didn’t know how to take keyboard events or move things through the screen other than with clicks. So, this game was a huge learning experience.

Another great thing, I always find important for game jams but people aren’t up to it usually. Is that teams where random. You would apply for a position, for example, a programmer, and then someone would pair you randomly. This let me work with awesome people I would not have been able to work.

So, this gives me two tips for game jams:

• Learn new stuff
  Game jams are a great moment to learn to make new stuff. In this one, it pushed me to learn new things I didn’t know before. Even more, basic things I should have known as a programmer and didn’t.
• Experiment new things
  Because game jams goals aren’t to make a profitable game. You can always try new kind of things. If it fails, doesn’t matter! It was just a few days of work.

Next year, I participated in the Newgrounds Game Jam #3 and made Shark Antennas Co. with one of the best teammates I ever had.

This time, the theme was: Cows connecting flying Sharks and it was generated randomly by a bot called IdeaTron.

Even I know the game isn’t a big deal and probably not fun at all. Is one of my proudest games I ever made for a game jam. I still remember when they gave is the theme and asked if we didn’t want to re-roll it (we had 3 chances). Of course, I said no.
It was a bizarre idea, but we came up with a company run by cows that throw sharks from a helicopter in order to connect people to the internet. More than once, I used this game just to post random stuff about free internet and to complain about my internet provider while wishing to have a shark breaking my house and giving me internet.
Another great thing happened in this game jam was how the team changed. First, we planned to do a bit of everything both of us. But, after we started, we re-organized and focused more on in one area. FuNaNdMoRe working more on the art while I just focused on programming.
Of course, as I said before, the game needs more polishment. It is clear that the game needs a better gameplay but I am still proud of had accepted the challenge of a difficult theme and it gave us a weird unique game.

This game jam gave me two new tips:

• Adjust to the game needs
  I think, being able to adjust roles in a game jam based on strengths and needs it is a very important thing.
• Embrace the theme
  No matter how bizarre, difficult or weird the theme is. Use it to your advantage. It will probably give you new and unique ideas that otherwise you would not have think of.

Later, that year, I with FuNaNdMoRe once again participated teamed up now in the Newgrounds Game Jam #4 and made Headbanging Hero.

The theme for us in this jam was: Use only arrows. The global theme was that you could only use a set of controls randomly assigned.

Probably the game I am less proud of as a game jam because it was just a copy of the Guitar Hero concept (which I am not sure if it was a copy of something else).
Ironically, we made a sequel for this game called Headbanging Hero: Metal and more ironically, it gave us a good amount of money with the ads (considering the year and the situation of that time).

From here, I get two more tips:

• Avoid making clones
  Don’t copy a game that already exists. It will not give you a discover experience and, of course, you will not stand any chance of winning if that was your goal.
• Possible sequels
  Even this isn’t a great example, actually, it is the opposite, think that the game you are making it can become a complete one later or a sequel. Game jams are a great moment to test new mechanics and if they work, you can actually dedicate more time in making a more complete version of the game.

Next year, I participated in the Newgrounds Game Jam #7. Here, we made the game Zelda the Welder.
The theme for this game jam was to plug individual themes into a Core Mechanics Diagram and develop their game around the results. Our one was Weld.
It was a game that we could easily escalate with. We would have at least one puzzle and depending on how much time we have, we would add more and more to it. Thanks to that, we were sure that we would have a game at the end of the game jam.
Sadly, one thing that didn’t work at all was that the communication of the team was a bit broken from the beginning. Frictions appeared but we managed to avoid problems by separating the tasks between us and avoided to overlap our work. I think it would have turned out to a more complete game if this would not have happened but, after all, we are still humans and this kind of stuff can come up.
From here, I am going to add two more tips:

• Plan your minimum viable product
  Come up with an idea that you know you can complete easily but is also scalable. For example, here we had this puzzles where we could easily keep adding more and more depending on the time we had.
• Frictions can happen, find workarounds for them
  This isn’t something particular of game jams but is something that can easily happen in a game jam, Especially if you are working with someone you had never worked before. Short deadline plus different work ways will generate frictions in the team. Try to sort them by finding a mid position between two opinions and if that fails, just clearly separate the work and try to go on with the project.

After that one, I worked on the Newgrounds Game Jam #8 with Chad and Roberto. Here, we made Billy’s Barricade.
This time, the theme was Cabin in the Woods.

For this game jam, a huge change was made in relation with the other game jams. We only had 48 hours to make it (instead of 72). This cut our time by a lot but as the last game jam, we focused on making a small mechanic working and then just added as much as content as we could.
Because by that time I wasn’t good at programming yet, I couldn’t come up with too much but Roberto made some awesome graphics we could integrate and the base mechanic, even it is really simple, had a nice twist because how the objects moved and bounced on the sizes.
Also, something that really worked well was that as in Zelda the Welder, the work didn’t overlap. Chad worked on an intro for the game while Roberto did the assets we used inside the gameplay and the menu. This gave us a solid style through the game.
I will come with a new tip for this one:

• If having more than one artist, avoid them working on the same thing
  The title is kinda self-explanatory but what I mean here is that you should avoid that two artists, with different styles, work in the same kind of assets. Since achieving a similar style is a difficult task and takes time, you will want them to work in different asset categories. This can be, for example, one in the menu and the other in the gameplay. One for UI the other for world assets. One for characters and objects while the other one works in backgrounds. And so on.

The next year, I started studying where I actually work now. That same year, I teamed up with Hugo, the artist of Witchcraft, and made a small game for the Newgrounds Game Jam #9. The game is called Order of the Narwhal.
In this case, teams had two weeks to develop games based on fake game screenshots in the Art Portal.

We had a lot of time compared to other game jams although not having a close deadline, made as probably work slower than we would do in another case.
The theme was very original in my opinion, it was a nice thing to be able to pick from a bunch of screenshots and make a game based on it. Even our didn’t look too much like a game, we converted it and have fun making it.
For this one, I don’t have actually a new tip. It was a really straightforward thing. Probably we should have managed our time better, but I will leave that one for another game where I can give you a better example.

After a break from game jams of three years. The place where I studied, and now I am working, organized a game jam sponsored by Cartoon Network. I guess I will just call it Cartoon Network Game Jam 2016 Argentina (guess that is a complete name). And we did No Más Dulces (No More Candy in Spanish).
The theme translation was something like: Things your parents didn’t let you do when you were a kid.

For me, this was the first game jam that I participated surrounded by other teams. I think this kind of experience is awesome because you get to see the progress of other teams and chat with them. Having this kind of ambient is a different way to experience a game jam and a must at least once in life.
In this one, one thing that worked really well was the procedural generation of levels based on matrixes. This won’t work with every mechanic you make but will for sure give you a lot of advantages like letting someone fill them by making levels, making quick rules in order to mix them and getting a lot of unique results from them, and more!
One thing that I also noticed, since we were allowed to stay the night in the place or go back to our homes and come the other day, a lot of people worked till late hours and had almost no sleep time. I think this is a negative way to plan any game jam and I will always encourage people to rest well during them.

Also, having a Framework Mono here give us a lot of help in order to get the result.
So, from here I get four new tips:

• Game jams in situ
  They are a great experience to try. Getting to know other people, share feedback and experience will make you learn a lot of new things you may not know before. Also, a great way to make new friends.
• Matrixes are your friend
  Of course, this depends on the game. But think of them as a simple tool that doesn’t need an editor and lets you make loads of combinations that let you make procedural mechanics. This will result in new experiences each time it is played.
• Rest!
  This is very important. A lot of people think game jams are of staying late and working till you can’t anymore. This is not only dangerous but also unproductive. Believe me, after one day of nice rest you could see which teams rested well and which ones didn’t by just looking at the progress they were making.
• Bring your framework
  Making a game like this would have been impossible to make without a base of code that doesn’t apply directly to the game. If the rules let you consider bringing a framework that helps you.

At the beginning of next year, we organized an unofficial game jam with students of where I work. In that game jam, I teamed up with another programming professor and made That Heavy Legacy.
This time, the theme was Legacy. An open one so everyone would be able to interpret it as they pleased.

One nice thing about that game jam was that we just made it for total fun and no stress at all. We said that if we failed, it wouldn’t actually matter. Also, we uploaded the whole source code to GitHub so students could look at the monstruosities we did.
On the other hand, that weekend I got a wisdom tooth removed so it had it pain side the jam even we didn’t care about trying to win. Guess it would have been a lot better to plan the visit to the dentist on another day.
For this game, we didn’t have an artist, so I made all the textures and models by myself. This was a huge challenge because, as you may notice, I am not good at art. Luckily, we used a pixel shader that gave us a nice style for the game.
One important tip from this one:

• Shaders are your friends
  Especially post process can give a unique feel for the game in a really short time, giving a lot of feel for the game without working too much the style of the game.

At the end of that year, I participated with Kevin, the artist of the Cartoon Network Game Jam and Asterash, in the Game Maker’s Tool Kit Game Jam. There, we made Wasting Bullets.
The theme for this game jam was to use the Downwell’s Dual Purpose Design.

Once again, matrixes did a great work when making procedural levels. Also, we aimed to have the gameplay working in the first 24hs hours which make a huge difference for a game.
This gives me a new tip:

• Have core gameplay working at half of the game jam
  Even it sounds a bit ridiculous and most of the people will take until last minute to add more to the gameplay. It is a good idea to have the final gameplay, or something close to it, at the half of the jam. This will give you a lot of time to make polishment for the game and make it feel a lot better.

Now only the games I did this year for game jams left. One of them was Skeleball, a game made for the Minimalistic Game Jam #3.

There was not actually a theme for this game jam. It was more than a series of rules we had: