During the event - Accompanying the participants to the success

4 years ago by Hitbox Makers (@HitboxMakers)

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“There is one thing only to remember: have a working prototype 24 hours after the start of the jam. Then, everything should be ok”

Many participants are new to Game Jam, and it will be a new tough exercise for them. So they might need some guidance.

In our first events, only 1 team over 10 managed to release a playable game… But with some experience, and the right advices, now more than 9 over 10 teams release a playable game. The way we guide them makes a huge difference

Making room for the beginners

We claim to be accessible to the beginners. So we need to make it true!

The first morning of the jam we organise a 2 to 3 hours workshop on a simple game development tool, construct 3. Every edition, 2 to 5 participants take part of it, and most of them manage to make a game!

Actually we observed that beginners are more likely to succeed in making a game than experienced developers. Because experience developers tend to aim far to high.

Competitive event and Tech-based Jam: Maybe your Jam is not for the beginners...

The 10 commandments of the participant

These are the most important 10 rules that we have learned from experience. We share them with our participants, and make them visible during the Jam.

The commandments

Explanation

On saturday at 8.00 pm, a prototype you must have.

Or tomorrow a wall your face, you might have

This one is the single most important advice. Just but telling this, we have raised our success ratio from 10% to 80%. After the first 24 hours, they should have their core mechanism working. If not, they should simplify or skip something. If they do, then that’s perfect! All the rest is pure fun to improve their game.

Keep it simple! Keep it quick! Keep it dirty!

...because everything will take longer that you expect.

We have observed that beginners often do much better than experienced developers: those are aiming way too high!! Keep it simple! And accept to code quick and dirty, as if there were no tomorrows... Doing something clever ALWAYS takes more time than you think..

There’s no time but the right time

Aiming beyond the Jam is the best way to release nothing, and be frustrated.

After nearly 100 games published in our Jam, we have observed that half the team expected to keep working on their game. However, only 6 or 7 actually did actually publish an update. And it usually was really minor changes or bug fixes. So aiming beyond the game Jam, is a real trap to do nothing.

No more than 4, or you’ll miss by more than one hour.

The more you are, the slower you’ll be.

Too large teams are difficult to manage, unless they are experienced at working together. Depending on the tools and skills, it often is difficult to be efficient with more than 2 developers.

And they will also be the choke point, has they’ll have to integrate other’s work.

You don’t work at night? then team with those who love sunlight

Whatever your rhythm is, it is better if you can work together

It took us a long time to realise that. But mixing in one team people who don’t share the same rhythm between day and night, is a serious risk of failure (and arguments). 2 or 3 hours shifts between team members might provide some optimisation. But beyond that, it is dangerous.

Don’t be fools, know your tools

Use tools you know, or very simple new ones

We have always had participants who wanted to try a new framework for the Game Jam. Well, unless that framework is extremely simple, or someone is ready to hold their hand for the whole jam, there is a very high risk of failure! It is fun though to experience new tools in a group. But it suits more a workshop than a game Jam.

Sleep is good for you and for your game too!

Getting enough rests provides much better results than working 20 hours a day.

Too often, have we seen teams staying awake the first night, and trying to keep working afterward, with no sleep. And of course, they were totally smashed from day one, and for the rest of the Jam. And they had little enjoyment. We are not superheroes!

There ain’t no rubbish! Press that damn button “publish”

Whatever you have achieved, a game, a text, a drawing... you should publish something, for you, for your team

Some teams will not be able to finish their game. But for everyone, and event if they don’t realise it yet, it is really important that they publish something, even if it is a bit of text, or a drawing.

Otherwise, they might leave the Jam with a painful feeling of failure... Also you’ll be surprised: often what they have done is much more interesting than they think..

Allied for the Jam, then released from the clan

Hold together as a team during the Jam, but then, you are all free from any obligation

A Game Jam is fun because it is a bubble in time. There is always some teams very excited to keep working on their game beyond the Jam. That’s great! However, experience shows that more often than not, the excitement drops down the day after, and both those expecting to keep going and the others get frustrated.

Short reckonings make long friends

You wish to keep developing the game, or even sell it? That’s great! But at least warn you mates

It is great when someone wants to keep working on a game, or even sell it. In the organisation, we don’t get involved in what happens after the Jam. However, we have seen some case where the situation was not clear between the team members. So we encourage the participants to talk of it, before they leave the Jam

Competitive Jam: As it is a professional event, that “Allied for the Jam, then released from the clan” might not be that true... It depends on your configuration.

Tech-based Jam: “Don’t be fools, know your tools”, well well well… The idea of that type of Jam is precisely to try a new tool... So it is up to you to assess how much preparation they need before the Jam, or if it is possible (and you have the staff) to accompany them during the event.

Identifying and handling problematic teams

Problematic team composition

The 10 commandments above aims at preventing some issues you could see in the teams composition:

Teams which are too large (more than 5 persons)
Teams with too many developers (more than 2 - unless they are experienced in working together)
Teams which mix of nocturnal and diurnal people
Different expectations about the fate of the game and the team beyond the Jam...

If you spot such situation, have a discussion with them and explain your concerns. Whatever decision they take, you will have warned them, and maybe it’ll prevent some issues

Problematic members

“The developer who believes he is really good. But he is not…”

The most problematic team members we have seen so far, are the developers who believe that they are much better than they actually are. They are dangerous: they are very likely to carry the whole team into a disaster. And this profile is pretty common.

There is a sign to identify such problematic situation: if during the brainstorming the developper keep saying, to every proposition that “it is easy” or “it is quick to implement”, and never explain that something might be too complicated ; then you might have this profile in front of you.

A first move might be to discuss with the team to lower their expectations.

If it doesn’t work, or if you already know this person is problematic, it is sad but for the good of the team, you might have to take some actions. Our my best advice, is to explain to the other team members your concerns. If they decide not to work with that developer, encourage that person to stay in the jam, but on his own project.

If you diagnosed correctly the situation, It is likely that he or she will be late on its project. It is then the perfect time to help him realise that he is aiming too high.

We have had a few case of young developers who had this profile for a few jams. But they finally understood the problem, and became good partners (it doesn’t work with everyone though...)

Too ambitious project

On saturday, we try to meet every teams to make sure that they are aiming at something possible. On saturday evening, if we see that they are too far from a prototype, a decision has to be taken:

They either really need to simplify their design.
Or in worst case, start from scratch, but something extremely basic. It is no failure: many really good games emerged from such dire situations.

Teams tearing apart

It rarely happens, but we have seen it a few times: teams which split mid-jam. Well it is their choice, and it might actually be a good thing...

But you should encourage every participants (at least those who stayed in the jam..), to keep working on a project, whether it is the original or a new one. It is possible to make a simple game in 6 hours, and it would still be a victory for them. While stopping mid-jam is likely to feel like a failure and create a long lasting painful memory.

When it occurs, both sides really need you!

Respecting the participants!

The involvement they want or can give

A Game Jam is tough, it can be stressful, and it might interfere with many other things in their lives (family, rest from tough job..). So it really is important to respect their rhythm, and their choice in involvement:

some will be here all the time, work like crazy, and want to see everything. And that’s great!
Some other might need sleep quietly at home, have dinner with their family, and prefer not to take part to the animations... That’s great too.

If you need all participants to adopt a specific behaviour, or to be there at a specific times, it should be clear when they sign in. At least, they know it!

Value their work, even if you don’t like it

You may not like what a team is doing, and it is normal. But whatever they do, their work as some value, and you should let them know.

However, if you see that they won’t meet the deadline, assessing that their work has a real good value, should not to stop you from helping them lake decisions.

Pay attention to their sensibility

We realise that around 10% of our participants have some form of light autism or other social issues.

Competitive Jam: If it is a competition or a professional event, the participants might be required to give minimum involvement and quality level...

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