Survive A Game Jam, 8 tips

1. Make the Jam Easy

Estimate Time

• Do you have enough time for the jam?
• Do you have enough time to build the game you have in your head?

Join a Team!

• People you know is best
• People you don't know can be fun
• Requires more communication and planning
• You can do many tasks in parallel

Go Solo!

• Can you do art, sound music and programming?
• Saves time on communication and management
• You might not have time to make all the things

2. Limit Scope

Animation

• As little as possible

Mechanics

• One or two.

AI

• The best AI is none

Inputs

• one button game
• point and click
• use standard controls

Art

• Limit colors
• Make shapes more uniform
• have one style

Sound

• Have a few sounds to cover what you need.
• keep it short and simple

Music

• make a few good simple loops

Code

• Don't get clever.
• Keep it small and short.
• The best code is no code

3. Do what you know

Design

• Don't build things you have to do a lot of research for
• Build things you know in a new way

Tools

• Use tools you have used before
• Use tools you are good at

No Google

• Don't do things you have to Google a lot for.
• Google is for ideas and light debugging

4. Use a GDD

Themes and Limitations

Theme: Water.
Limitation: No text in the game

Main Mechanics/ Game Type

Mechanic: swim and collect dirty socks
Type: Point and Click

Setting

A friends swimming pool.

To Do List

• main title screen
• timer
• point and click work
• art
• sfx
• music etc

5. Start with the end in mind

Win Cases

• What are they?
• How many?
• Why?

Lose Cases

• What are they?
• How many?
• Are they interesting??
• How does the game handle losing?

Main Game

• Make sure players can quit the game
• Make sure players can access settings

Main Menu

• Start
• How to Play
• Credits
• Quit
• Please Rate our Game

6. Be Lean

• Set up your game's web page first
• Publish the simplest version of your game
• Iterate to the next working build and publish.

7. Self Management

• Sleep
• Eat
• Take Breaks
• If you need help, ask

8. Win the Jam

• Browser Playable
• Good Banner Image
• Don't skip the music!
• Consistent art style
• Test your builds!
• Make it Juicy
• Ask for a rating!