The Game Jam Survival Guide

Build a game in one crazy weekend and survive to tell the tale!

• Enthusiastic and light-hearted, glimpse the excitement and frantic creativity of game jams.
• Motivating, encouraging and infectious, it is sure to help you reach the finish line.
• Follow this handbook from brainstorming an idea, over bitter obstacles and on to the sweet finish line: a complete, playable, fun game.
• Each stage of game jams is described with task lists and anecdotes relating common experiences, the trials and the tribulations of past game jam champions and losers.
• Packed with interviews, tips, tricks and wise words from Ludum Dare and Global Game Jam organisers among other well-known game jammers.

In Detail

Game jams are fun. They are a creative, exciting, social experience. The goal of a game jam is to design a video game, either alone or in teams, as fast as is humanly possible; usually in a single weekend.

The Game Jam Survival Guide, written to help you have more fun and achieve greater results at your next game jam by building a successful game without burning out, leads readers through each 12-hour phase of a 48-hour weekend game jam.

Weekend warriors: dominate your next game jam! If you follow the system shared in this book, you will be able to build an amazing game that you’re proud of and will entertain players, all in just one crazy 48-hour game jam weekend … and survive to tell the tale!.

Embrace the best practices and techniques of past game jam winners and avoid common pitfalls along the way to the finish line. You too can survive a 48-hour game development marathon with your mind intact and an amazing game to show off to friends and family!

With The Game Jam Survival Guide you will learn the secret techniques that master game jammers use to create winning entries. It starts by showing you great ways to brainstorm and design a game based on a theme. It then moves on to highlight the best tools and techniques to finish a game in a weekend of coding. Anecdotes and advice from past winners and losers combined with humorous words of encouragement are sure to help you on your way. The author presents a list of game jams around the world, online communities worth checking out, fantastic game engines, and art resources. Finally, learn how to monetize your game by gaining sponsorship from big gaming websites. It’s the fun way to make your own video game in one weekend!

What you will learn from this book

• Preparing for the jam: conquer the theme, pick design aids, prototype quickly, choose the right tools for the job, and cut the right corners.
• Bombastic brainstorming: power up your idea generator and run with a theme, gain more votes and please the masses.
• Building a game jam entry: pick your weapons, follow your plan, cut the bells-n-whistles, scramble over “the wall”, submit a game on time, and with a little luck, attain fame and fortune.
• Why Mike “PoV” Kasprzak (Ludum Dare administrator) thinks game jams are a good introduction to the realities of the game industry.
• The reasons why Dr. Mike Reddy (organizer of the Global Game Jam) thinks designing on paper is essential.
• The best ways to find creative inspiration and develop an idea to fit a theme according to Eric McQuiggan (founding member of The Dirty Rectangles) and Chevy Ray Johnston (author of the FlashPunk engine).
• What Foaad Khosmood (director of the Global Game Jam) suggests you do to ensure you finish before the deadline.
• The worst way to prepare according to Pekka “pekuja” Kujansuu and the best way according to Phil Hassey (Ludum Dare administrators)
• What one piece of advice Jason P. Kaplan (founder of the Game Prototype Challenge) would give to newcomers.

Approach

The Game Jam Survival Guide is an insider view of game jams packed full of expert advice; leading with tips and tricks on how to build a great game with just 48 hours; but clearly defining what should be avoided at all costs during Game Jam mayhem. The reader is led through each half-day phase; from the beginning of your quest in hours 1-12 to breaking through “the wall” on day two and finally reaching the finishing line in hours 37-48.

Who this book is written for

Although the book is intended for beginners and experts alike, the reader will already know how to program (in any language). He or she will love games and want to learn how to best make their own game in a wild and crazy 48-hour period.