ENTERING A GAME JAM

Short life Update

I'm officially only doubly employed, and in a much better position starting this year than I ended the last; and so I've joined a Game Jam. Because only being doubly employees with two academic essays to write and three custom orders resting on the work bench, I'm sure to have enough free time.

I'm using Tom Francis's "Make A Game With No Experience" youtube Game Maker series as a blueprint for my submission and between everything I'll try to keep track of my progress. 

This is just a quick post to help boost the My First Game Jam's signal and a little encouragement for anyone else looking for that extra little push to get them working.  

And because this is too short of a post I'm going to ramble some in the form of a list.

While I've never finished a project, there is some advice I can offer.

10 MISTAKES TO AVOID MAKING YOUR FIRST FAST AND DIRTY GAME

Or

10 REASONS THIS WRITER HAS FALLEN FLAT ON HIS FACE TRYING TO MAKE GAMES

1. REMEMBER IT IS FAST AND DIRTY

People new to game making fall into this pit without even noticing, it's knowing when to cut your losses and call what you have done. It won't be perfect, that's what Game Jams are all about, so don't worry about making it looked polished. Just like when you write your paper the night it's due, first get a completed draft, then work out your most egregious errors, and keep working away at those for as much time as you have left on the clock. Fix the game breaking bugs, play it though to make sure everything's triggering how it should, and slap something like art over the top of it.

2. FUN TRUMPS SENSE

You'll find alot of indie games fall into the trap of making a game "by the blueprints". Designing and writing events into the game because that's what the creator expects to be in this or that sort of game. Firstly it leads to a dull same-ish genre piece we've seen and mostly forgotten about, and secondly it leads to you accidentally plotting out something that is out of your league. The rule of Keep It Simple Stupid, has never been more applicable and the simplest you can get without fault is a game where, regardless of how short or how badly drawn, the play is fun. This is your first game, don't concern yourself what happens after the queen is taken, or why she's taken, or who you even are for that matter until you already have boxes onscreen that are coded to damage, jump, and follow each other around; and all of those actions are fun. It's a harsh lesson, but if walking and shooting, or whatever, doesn't feel engaging and responsive to the player, if the thing the player has to do in the game doesn't feel rewarding, nothing else can save that game. Do not worry if the dragon showing up makes sense until the act of shooting it is fun in itself.

3. FUN IS SIMPLE

Where rule 2. is "don't design the game before you have the gameplay", rule 3. is "Keep Gameplay Stupid." Complex code and mechanics will do you no good when you're trying to iron out gamemaking bugs for code you've just learned. You are new to coding, you are new to game design, you have a very quickly approaching deadline; look for the simplest game type to code with the simplest tutorial series you can find. The mantra of the gamemaker; simple to learn, hard to master, is your friend. Not just because complex inputs and mechanics take more time trying to animate and balance for your game, but because what you might think to be one of the simplest features is in-fact a metric assload of code that you are sooo not ready to tackle. If you cannot find a tutorial for a feature you want, cut that feature out of the design, this is not your swan-song, this is your very first game for a Game Jam. You can explore whatever features you want later when you've gotten the hang of making an actual game. Recognize what the bare minimum of what you want your players to experience and find what you need to do that, be prepared to simplify or change it. Walk and then jump, or shoot, or punch. Try to make something that only needs the wasd or arrow controls and then one or two other buttons, after that you can explore, even then I wouldn't until the enemies and game features like restart or exit are coded in.  

4.LINES ON PAPER

Art could very well be on your list of "things I'm not good at" but that doesn't excuse you from having to get around to making games. You don't need to wait for a fancy tablet or until you've taken art classes, you have the internet at your fingertips for one, there are more drawing tutorials then there are coding tutorials. And secondly this is a game jam, no one is expecting 3d models or photo-realistic drawings. The mind is an amazing and simple thing, just put two circles on a shape of any sort and image is suddenly recognized as a face. Make the circles a third the proportion of the now "head" and make one eye smaller then the other and congratulations you've made it cute. Now add any sort of other facial distinguishing features, like animal noses or ears, and you've reproduced the household aesthetic of a 5 something billion dollar title. Good art may be difficult to master, but art in itself is easy, forget whatever anyone else told you. As Garfield in his Saturday morning cartoon once said; "It's just lines on paper." The art should be as simple for you as doodling pixel art in paint, feel free to do just that in fact.

5.USE A TOOL YOU'RE FAMILIAR WITH

This isn't the time to be experimenting with a new image or sound editor, much less any new game creation software. Something you've already doodled or tried tutorials with if and whenever possible. This also means to know your design, and know when your tool just isn't suited for that purpose. Yes you could make a 3d game shooter with gamemaker or contruct, but the result is going to be comparable to The Mona Lisa made of Macaroni, impressive in it's own right, but it will always be just a lesser version of the original. 

6. STUCK WITH CODE, ASK THE DUCK

7. SURROUND YOURSELF
The upside of having all of social media a tab away resting at your fingertips is that, despite all of the possible distractions, you are able to 100% capable of mingling with your peers. You'll be able to watch other developers work and see their approach to problems, learn little new tricks that someone does with their code, or at the very least you can pick up the hotkeys and shortcut ins and outs of your program. The easiest way to keep yourself inspired in your craft is to surround yourself with others in the thick of their own craft, leave yourself little reminders of why you love doing whatever it is you do and witness others to keep that creative clockwork turning. You might have one idea for what to do to spice up the mechanics you got from this or that tutorial, and suddenly you see something completely out there done by someone else that gives you this awesome idea that was just so simple you don't know why you didn't do it before.

8. INJECT YOURSELF
It's never enough to just sit on the sidelines, and as long as you're using the duck method appropriately and not just coming to spam forums with questions as they arise, a community of craftspeople will just as gladly lend a hand with a question as they would gladly receive help when they truly need it. Everybody is there because they love what they do and they want nothing better than to hone their skills and have their work become as good as they can possibly make it. Do not be shy, it doesn't matter if you're still working on finishing your first, anyone whose had the experience of completing those first few games understands what position your in, especially under Game Jam conditions.

9. JUST DO IT
Yesterday you said tomorrow, ect. ect. There is no time like the present, if you know what you want to do, do it. If you know what kind of game or what tutorial you want to use, start. If you just know what you want it to look like or you're stuck after getting your basic movement down, start doodling, always be making something. I don't necessarily mean call in sick an lock yourself in your room. But build productive habits, keep to a strict regimen of so many hours a day, whenever you find yourself thinking of or figuring something out, don't save it for later. Get up and do it. If you can't do it, write it down in a notepad. It's remarkable how many game changing ideas you'll forget by the time you sit back down with the folder open. Plus writing the psudocode will help you work out in your mind how all the parts go together and make learning the code and fixing the bugs easier, the more familiar you get with your code the easier time you will have getting it to do what you want.

10. AVOID UNNECESSARY DISTRACTIONS

 ... It's a curse of the hobby to be on the same device we spend all of our leisure time on, but productivity is a habit learned through repetition like any other. Set daily goals and milestones to keep yourself on track and give yourself something to hold yourself to, when you get something done quicker then you expect move onto the next task, some thing will take longer then you expect and you're going to want all of elbow room you can make for yourself. It's great to be able to pump out a game in a week or two when you're chasing deadlines; but to do the work when no one is holding you accountable, when you're at home and ready to relax, that's the kind of diligence that makes a enthusiast or hobbyist into a craftsman. That being said, I'm going to jump back into the thick of it. Expect screenshots soon. Also.. don't do what I just did, if you're going to keep track of stuff kept it short, keep it simple. Screenshots and small blurb write ups if you need something to keep the creative juices flowing.