We see a lot of posts asking how one can learn, get better, or find motivation for game dev. The answer to all three is Game Jams! In a month, the annual Kenney Jam is coming up. It’s 3 days long. It’s a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Nice and short.
There are a ton of 2D and 3D assets to use, and enough of them are free from both Kenney and KayKit, that you can learn how to use them now - and be ready for the jam next month!
Just make the worst game you can that plays. I did that last year, and my game was atrocious! I was way too ambitious with Prisoner 42, and it never got off the ground. I should have done something much, much simpler. Still, that failure of any real gameplay was informative for me. I wrote about it in my Post Mortem Devlog for the game. I completely failed, but I learned from that and am excited for this year!
I’ve acquired the ‘All-in one’ bundle; I’ll have a look around in there to see how I can use its contents, with a participation in this folly in mind. I’m not really ‘quick-minded’ for this kind of challenge (old age is my excuse…), and I may well get caught out by a theme which leaves me uninspired in the time allotted, but… We’ll see. ‘It’s all for fun, y’know’ (a partial quote from a Jefferson Airplane song…).
Peace.
The biggest one I joined was 20 seconds game jam and guess what! I was somehow able to make a good game! It is the thing that is powering my motivation soo far.
