In case you didn’t already know, last weekend was a game jam weekend. If you’re wondering “what the hell is a game jam and how is that relevant to me” this is the post you don’t want to miss. After all, you waste at least half an hour every day to social media, so reading this in the next couple of minutes won’t hurt, right?

Alright, what’s a game jam and can I spread it on bread?

Unfortunately, game jam is NOT a special kind of jam that you can spread on bread along with Nutella. The inspiration for the term comes from the musical term “jamming” which is nothing more than a long session in which the band/musicians experiment and try to create a new song/material.

The band can therefore jam for as long as they want to, so it makes sense that this same term is used when we talk about tech (or any kind of) competitions which last for days.

You might’ve also heard another term when talking about this kind of competitions, and that is the term “hackathon”. This word comes from the popular and oldest running competition — the marathon, and the word hacking. Having all this in mind, it’s not a shocker that most of the game jams (and/or hackathons) last for 48 hours.

As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, the Global Game Jam was hosted last weekend. It began on January 31st at 5pm and ended on February 2nd, also at 5pm. I took part in the Skopje jam site in Macedonia. The theme for this year’s game jam was “repair”.

OK boomer, but why do I have to go to a game jam?

To be honest, you don’t have to do anything. I just really wanted you to pay attention to my blog. You know what they say — you’re entitled to do whatever you like!

However, if you can find yourself in some of the things that I’m going to talk about below, then you should seriously think about attending the next year’s game jam and maybe create a reminder right now for January 2021!

This is my team. All the best to Ivan, Vidik, Geno & Stef!

Reason #1 to attend a game jam: you love games

It goes without saying. If you enjoy playing games and cannot wait to get home and play some DotA, or whatever you like playing on your PC… if you always read gaming news, or simply said, you’re kind of obsessed with gaming in general — then the game jam is something that you should not miss in your lifetime.

Reason #2 to attend a game jam: you love challenges

Making something out of nothing in 48 hours is a special kind of challenge. The game jam is a competition in which you get the topic for the game you’ll develop on the spot. That means that you and your team will only have an hour or two to brainstorm and think of an idea which you’ll need to realize in the next two days.

While working on your game you will find yourself dealing with all kinds of problems and you will have to fix them ASAP or find a way to ignore them. Doesn’t this remind you of the way life works in general? You can say that in a way, the game jam is just like life, only disguised as a competition.

Reason #3 to attend a game jam: so that you learn something a lot of things

Talking from personal experience here. This was my second game jam. For the first one, last year, I went without any kind of knowledge for game development and won third place, thanks to my team. For this one, I came with a little bit of knowledge and as the competition progressed I realized that I actually still don’t know shit…

From this I can conclude that last year I REALLY didn’t know anything, while this year I knew enough to accept the fact that, in fact, I know nothing. As you know, the more you know about a certain topic, the more you realize you don’t know! My objective for next year is to know enough to not lose precious time on small bugs that the lead programmer in my team was able to fix in a couple of minutes.

However, by attending this two game jams which accounted to 4 days of full focus on game development, I learnt much more things than I would’ve in normal circumstances. Working under pressure does that to you! It motivates you to communicate urgently with your team and the more experienced developers. Consequently, you’re becoming a better (developer and) version of yourself.

Reason #4 to attend a game jam: to be inspired

It doesn’t matter if you win some prize in the end. In the course of only 48 hours you will create something of your own. The final product is part of you, just as it is part of everyone else in the team that you chose for yourself.

It can happen that you attend a game jam without choosing a team beforehand. In that case you will have to find and meet with at least two new people, to create a team. Even if you have a team, the probability to not meet someone new in those 48 hours is non-existent. The least you will do is say hello to a total stranger, that just like you, hasn’t slept for 2 days either.

A wise man once said, if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room. Being the smartest one in a game jam room is impossible. Let’s say that you’re the best programmer on the whole wide world, and on the jam, for that matter.

If that’s the case, you’re still not smarter musically than the musical genius creating background music that might be sitting right next to you. If you’re the best musician, you will find someone that is better than you in drawing/design. If you’re the best designer, I guarantee you, you will not be the best and most calm manager that deals with its team in a fantastic manner.

If none of these things are getting you inspired, then nothing will!

Reason #5 to attend a game jam: so you can have fun

As I said, if you found yourself in any of the four previous points, you will also find yourself in this one. What could be better when you already have unlimited coffee & Red Bull, food, and happy, motivated people all around you?

The game jam might totally exhaust you, but in the end of the weekend you will feel reborn because of the reasons listed above. Also, you will be able to say proudly that you have created a game!

The game we developed!

Few words about the game we developed

This year’s game that my team and I developed was called Zombie Factory. We created the game in Unity. You can download it from the link and play it on your Windows/Mac computer.

You might remember that the theme for this year’s jam was “repair”. You might also wonder how zombies are connected to the theme. This is how! Our background story is that the game takes place in a not so distant future, when the humanity already dealt with the zombie apocalypse. How did we do that? Well, we tamed the zombies with industrial music, and now we use them as cheap labor!

And everyone knows that cheap labor often breaks down. That’s how the game is connected to the repair part. The zombies are actually taken to the zombie factory for repairment/part assemly!

The game concept was inspired by Cook Serve Delicious. I can say that my team was one of the few that tried developing a game which is not a platformer. That’s why I am extremely proud of the endeavor we took, even though in the end we didn’t create the MVP we wanted.

Other games worth noting

Since you’re at the very end of this post, I’m sure you’ll be interested to play some quality mini-game. This are my favorites from the Skopje jam site:

Prepare & repair — a multiplayer game that won first prize

Ricky’s Mishap — inspired by Rick & Morty and some of the well known time-travel paradoxes

Sysadmin — most probably the coolest game in this jam site, made in ARCore

Bonus song

It’s not a song, but it’s still a bonus. I want to give myself some thumbs up for the fact that in those 48 hours while the competition lasted I also managed to run 3 hours/30 kilometers!

Go, go, follow me on Strava!

You’re wondering how much more would have I achieved if I hadn’t run. The answer to your question is — I would’ve achieved less in that way because I would piss off my whole team. You don’t want to be near me if I haven’t ran. :)

See you on the next game jam!