Blog

Last weekend I enjoyed participating in the Global Game Jam in Nashville. People all over the world participate in the GGJ, which lasts from Friday night to Sunday. You make a game either by yourself or with a team that focuses on the theme of the year, and at the end of the weekend you present it to the other participants. In Nashville, Vanderbilt University hosted us at the Wond’ry. The building was great! It had a beautiful spiraling staircase, several work spaces, and a great gathering room. Here is my review of the three day event:

Friday:

On the first night we watched one of the keynote speakers and heard the theme, “What Home Means to You.” We formed teams, and I got to know my teammate. Our game idea was that something apocalyptic had happened, so the player can’t leave their home without slowly dying. However, they have to go outside to collect what they need to survive. We worked on the idea and figured out what we would have to do to create the team. With a team formed and a clear game idea decided, we headed home to rest for the next day.

Saturday:

On the second day of the Game Jam, my teammate and I started work on the game. We decided to go with a 16-bit pixel art style. I began programming to get some basic movement, and I worked on a camera that would move like it was tiled when you went from one section to another. We learned about Unity’s new tilemap system, which is amazingly helpful for mapping out our game, which was a top-down 2D world. At noon, we were prompted by those running the event to come up with a name for our game so that everyone could register their game on the Global Game Jam website. It was not long before we decided on “Crafting at Home” because we loved how the happy sound of the name clashed with the dystopian story. Around me, I watched other teams help each other with game problems, amazing music being crafted, discussions of art direction, and design decisions being made. It seems the secret of the Global Game Jam really is collaboration. By the end of the day we had mostly finished up with the functionality of the game. The player could pick up items, build a gas mask once they had the pieces of it and were inside their humble abode, and they would lose health outside and gain health inside. With that much accomplished, we went our separate ways to get some sleep and meet back up in the morning.

Dawn of the Final Day, Sunday:

On the final day of the Global Game Jam, my teammate and I needed to finish up our little game. We just needed to slap on some sound effects and music, throw on a few scenes for the menu, add winning and dying, and we were good to go! I got the functionality of changing scenes working, while my teammate made a few sound effects real quick. The game was complete! We uploaded it to the Global Game Jam website, and finally, it was time for jammers to present their games! Those who chose to could upload their games on the website, put their game on the screens in the auditorium, and talk about their design process as well as some hurdles they may have had to overcome. Everyone did a great job on their games, and it was so cool to see how much others got accomplished in the very short time allotted. A few notable mentions were a VR game in which you would tell your kids what chores to do, and it worked by using speech recognition to figure out what you wanted them to do. Another was a platformer where you were freeing the children from an evil corporation called “Box Media.” Finally, there was a puzzle game where you had to look underneath the ground and spin pipes around so that the homes above could function.

This jam was so much fun, and I am looking forward to more in the future! It felt so good to have a playable, fun game after just a weekend. If you haven’t gone to the Global Game Jam or just any game jam, you should definitely try one out! It’s a good opportunity to test your skills on a time limit while also having a lot of fun. There is a great community in them, and you get to meet new friends as well.