At Enigma Dragons, we've been jamming with many different teams for 3 years. Here are the key things we want the team to keep in mind.
- Have fun!
- Challenge yourself and expand your skills
- Create something cool that you can showcase for years
- Don't burn yourself out
If you accomplish this, then you succeeded at the jam, regardless of how people rate the actual game.
- Create something fun to play
- Create a complete (though small) experience
- Ship a game with a good amount of polish
- Keep a small scope!
- Try to fit as many creation iterations as possible (milestones)
- Take breaks, exercise, eat, get sunshine, get solid sleep
- Save time at the end for polish
- Day Before Jam - Setup your workspace. Buy food/snacks/drinks. Complete the Quick Start Guide.
- 1hr before Jam - Jump in Voice Chat with the Jam Team. Get to know each other.
- Jam Start - 1-2 hours brainstorm session. Reach Team Consensus on Game Design and Initial Scope.
- First 8 Hours - Blitz to create the skeleton game, playable from Main Menu to Victory and Game Over.
- First Main Jam Phase - Add content and mechanics. QA Testers work on finding bugs. Designers work on making the game fun.
- Jam Midpoint - Team Syncs to review current full game and creates a shared vision for Content Complete Milestone
- Second Main Jam Phase - Finish up key content, mechanics and game feel.
- Final 6 Hours - Polish the game. Everyone plays through the game. Tune visuals. Fix bugs.
- 2hr before Jam End - Create Game Page, Gameplay Video, Sizzle Trailer, etc.
- Final Hour - Test Final Build and Submit once approved.
- After Jam - Team Retrospective in Voice Chat. Talk about what went well, what didn't go well, and how we can improve.
- 1st - Game Skeleton Complete
- 2nd - Core Gameplay Loop Complete
- 3rd - Initial Content Complete
- 4th - Content Complete
- 5th - Polished and Finalized