Why I'll never do a game jam...
And why you should!
Why should you participate in game jams?
The perspective of not sleeping only to produce a bare-bones game in a limited time sends me back to the first years of my financial freedom, having a job and seeing the glory in doing anything on my computer Friday late at night. Although romanticizing this gives some joy, I wouldn't consider this a reason to participate.
But there are still many benefits of participating in a game jam.
One huge reason to participate is that in a limited amount of time, you will end up with a prototype for a game.
It doesn't have to be pretty.
It doesn't have to be market-ready.
It doesn't have to be... finished... (say what?)
But it will have the main idea implemented in a presentable way.
And that's almost half of a game. The rest will be work on assets, balancing, polishing, and marketing.
Why I don't participate in game jams?
First of all: time management.
Second: Focus.
As a corporate person, loving husband, and 2nd Best Father of Every Year1, I am unable to arrange a few days outside of family life.
Frankly, I don't even want to.
Such participation requires not only X time of life but also preparation. I don't think people doing game jams are going there with an empty head. They do have to prepare before that. Obviously, I can’t go into details, but I’d love to learn how this works in real life.
Outside of a game jam, I’d be unable to focus enough to produce a game that quickly. I’m just unable to put pressure on myself.
If you know what I mean…
Whatever this guy was doing, I’m pretty sure he got it done fast!
Conclusion
Do game jams.
Do them, because you’ll be old before you know it.
And your priorities will change.
In case you are wondering, the 1st Best Father of Every Year is this guy:
I won't recommend game jams as a family person. I did a game jam before but I felt it had nothing to do with the game I wanted to make and it was a different theme, so its not a priority for me.
But making my own game i use the idea of Game jam constraints idea to make and test features for my game, similar to a sprint in Agile software development, though faster.
I spend say like 3 nights trying to see if I can make a feature or just test some idea in my engine or in a game doc writing or drawing things out just prototype.
I do feel game jams are nice if you are single and young exploring game dev.
I thought about a game jam, but I never tried one or knew when or where they were.
My 20 yr old single son does art jams. It's a major focus for him w everything else shoved aside because of the tight deadlines & piling requirements in round after round of qualifications.
These all seem to be single, unemployed young people focused events.