Global Game Jam GGJ (English version)

Türkçe versiyon

What is a Game Jam?

Organizations where a group of people gather and develop games from scratch over a limited period of time. The aim here can be summarized as meeting new people, getting into an intense development environment for a short period of time, developing yourself, learning and experimenting with new things and having fun. There are also online Game Jams as well as Game Jams that require you to be on  at the physical jam site location. One of the most famous Online Game Jams is ludumdare.

What is the Global Game Jam?

Global Game Jam, shortly GGJ, is a 48-hour Game Jam event that is made at the end of January each year. Many institutions around the world become GGJ sites. There are approximately ten sites in Turkey. Every year a certain theme is picked and games are developed related to that theme. For example, in 2017, the theme was waves. On Friday at 17.00 the theme of that year is announced and the marathon begins. On Sunday, at 17:00 the developments are finished and the projects are uploaded to the servers.

What should I take with me for Global Game Jam?

According to my experience in GGJ 2017, this is a list of the things that I'm going to bring:

1. Your laptop. Usually everyone brings in their own computer, the place your GGJ site may give you a computer, but you need to confirm that prior. If possible it's better to go with your own computer.
2. Laptop adapter. Forgetting this would be a serious mistake.
3. 40 L trekking  bag (A large bag or a small suitcase.)
4. Sleeping bag. (I had last year, it was very useful)
5. Sleeping mat. (I didn't have last year, and I really felt the need for it. :)) So I got one this year. This is really important. We had big pillows in 2017, but there wasn't enough of it and they were not comfortable either. After all, I almost slept on the floor. If you sleep on a hard floor, even in a sleeping bag, the soft insulation material in the sleeping bag becomes squeezed and it stops protecting from the cold. The mats aren't that soft and they don't squeeze so they isolate the cold coming from the ground. You're welcome for the free heat transfer lesson from me 🙂
6. A lot of gum. (Concentration boost for me)
7. Snacks, crackers.
8. Plenty of nuts (not chips or junk food but hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, etc.)
9. Herbal teabags, black tea teabags, coffee and mug. (Most of them are available at the site but if you are picky about these (like me), take it yourself. For example there are cups, but paper cups, I prefer to drink in my glass cup. There is coffee but I do not know if it will be the type I like)
10. Toothbrush, toothpaste, toothpicks.
11. Wet wipes
12. A couple of different outfits that are comfortable to you, t-shirts. It can be cold at night. Remember that you’ll be there for 48 hours (probably without getting out of the building).
13. Two pairs of shoes. This is important for me. You will probably go with your boots on as it’s the winter, but you will almost always be indoors for 48 hours. For this reason, I would recommend you to take a very comfortable, breathable (sweaty foot sucks) shoe (almost like a slipper).  You will only wear this inside.
14. Maybe some bags as laundry bag.
15. If you have a business card, bring plenty of them with you.
16. Don’t forget your medicines if you use them. For example, I get talcid - rennie (sometimes it happens) against burning in my stomach.
17. Phone charger.
18. Usb memory.

Preparation for Global Game Jam

Technical part:

1. Check all the software you are using, and if available update them. For example Unity and Visual Studio, are they up to date? Maybe you will develop mobile games. Is your Android SDK up to date? If not, update it. There will be maybe hundreds of developers, and the internet will be very slow because they all of them will connect through the same internet connection.
2. Again, due to the internet bottleneck, keep the installers of the tools you use to save time. For example, download and save Unity's installers. You will meet your new teammates there, and they may not have the necessary programs or they may have older version. You can give them the installers so that all the team can quickly get to the same development environment.
3. Download the assets that might be useful. Update all existing assets.
4. If you do not have enough space on your computer, free up some space.
5. Apply Windows updates if available. Don’t be in a position where you are on the jam and waiting for your computer to download and install update.
6. Prepare a project template. Include all the common subsystems you use in every project, scripts, assets etc. Create your folder structure, and working main menu.

Others:

1. Start taking your sleep well a few days in advance. So do not start the game jame sleep deprived.
2. If you are about to get sick, don’t! 😀 Go to a doctor a few days before and get your treatment.

Teaming up at Global Game Jam

You can go to GGJ alone or you can go with your own team. When you go with your own team, you are less likely to meet new people, learn new things, or try new things. I went alone in 2017 and met new people there and built a nice team.

The process was approximately like this: The organization started at 14:00 on Friday. People checked in and get settled. An ice breaker game was played to help people get to know each other. Then a few conversations were made and the theme of that year was announced. In 2017 it was waves. Since the theme was now known, game ideas began to be produced.

A hall full of people were standing up and mumbling as “waves, sea wave, radio wave, waveeee..” 😀 trying to come with an idea 😀 Everyone was exchanging ideas, and at this stage teams began to emerge from people that think alike. At 18:00, the teams (or single developers with an idea but without a team) briefly presented their game ideas and told what expertises needed in their teams. Thus, a jammer with the needed expertise  who doesn’t have a good idea and a team, could be included in those teams.

For example, I get up and say: "We are going to make a submarine game, submarine will move in the dark, sending a sonar wave, we have two software developers but we don’t have a graphic designer." Thus a graphic designer that hasn’t joined a team yet could join our team if he likes our game idea.

Because the workload of sound and music  experts is generally less than that of other experts and sound and music experts are usually fewer, they generally were members of multiple teams, helping all of them.

In summary, do not be afraid to attend alone; go there alone and make new friends ...

Note: We actually presented a game idea about the wifi wave but then a few hours later we totally changed our mind and made a submarine game: D

Global Game Jam advices

1. The most important advice is to keep the project small and simple. 48 hours is too short. Lets add this feature, that feature, let's write custom artificial intelligence, or even a game in the game... None of them would be finished in time. You end up saying : “We couldn’t finish the game, it’s completely broken, it doesn’t work, but if we could finish it, it was going to be marvelous, we were going to have this and that and that feature… Believe me…” in your final game presentation. It's much nicer to show a finished, working game instead.
2. Try to set up a balanced team when setting up a team, instead of 6 graphic designer and 1 programmer try to form a more balanced team. If one side of the team is strong, pick your game idea accordingly. So if your team is strong on graphic design and weak on software development, find a game idea that is graphics-intensive and requires little code development..
3. Finding the idea of ​​a game: After the theme is revealed, you will be trying hard to find the perfect game idea. Do not spend a lot of time on it, find your game idea within 2-3 hours. Focus on to find a game idea that is doable, fun, and fits the theme. You can review this nice game idea finding method.
4. If you search for assets on the Internet (images, models, sounds, music ...) do not spend 4 hours to find the perfect archer sprite. You will curse yourself while trying to finish the game in panic on Sunday at 16.30 😀 A mediocre archer sprite you find in 20 minutes will also get the job done. If you finish all the developments at 13.00 on Sunday, you can return back to searching for a better archer sprite …
5. Sleep: The marathon will last three days and two nights. If you don’t sleep well on the first night, your performance will fall in the second day. Sleep well on the first night. Be good on the second day. If necessary, sleep a little less on the second night (the night that connects Saturday to Sunday) but sleep at least 3-4 hours anyway so that you will still have energy to develop your game until Sunday evening.
6. Eating and drinking: Eat healthy things. Plenty of water. If you are taking vitamins, do not forget them. If you don’t eat well, your health will not be good and your games will not be good. They usually serve you food in the jame site, but confirm it before you go. If they don’t, go out and eat some good food. Our meals were very very good, so good that I couldn’t understand how this was possible... 🙂
7. Do not drink too much coffee. Excessive coffee causes excessive stress.
8. Do not stress, be comfortable, you are there to have fun, not for competition.
9. Do not forget the 80 - 20 rule. Another free suggestion 🙂 If we interpret this for the game development, 80% of the acclaim come from 20% of the features. Develop 20% features that provide 80% of this acclaim. So do not spend a lot of time developing features that have very little importance. Spend 20 labor and collect 80 points. Do not waste 80 labor to get that last 20 points. (Example: 4th article)

In 2017 I participated in the GGJ in BUG, ​​the Game Lab of Bahcesehir University (BAU). I will be there this year too...

#akış