7 Killer Tips for Making a Game in 48 Hours from Global Game Jam

by The Acagamic

Jam — Not Crushed Fruit
If you are study­ing game devel­op­ment or just are a hobby pro­gram­mer, chances are that you have heard about the Nordic Game Jam, which is a gath­er­ing of peo­ple inter­ested in game devel­op­ment that camp together and cre­ate a game around the clock for a few days (usu­ally a week­end) in Europe. The con­cept is sim­ple and the idea of fast pro­to­typ­ing on a small scale is some­thing appre­ci­ated by game devel­op­ers around the world (see for exam­ple the exper­i­men­tal game­play project). So, it was only a mat­ter of time until a global game jam would be ini­ti­ated. It took place in loca­tions around the world and fin­ished today. Games cre­ated in these game jams are often the start­ing point to full indie games. After all, fast, iter­a­tive pro­to­typ­ing gave us pearls like Braid (my cur­rent favorite!), Passage, Crayon Physics Deluxe, Gish, The Marriage, and World of Goo. The devel­oper of the lat­ter, Kyle Gabler, gave a keynote at the Global Game Jam in which he gave seven killer tips for mak­ing a game in 48 hours. You can watch the keynote and read the tips below.

The Keynote Video

7 Killer Tips for Making a Game in 48 Hours

  1. Never Fall in Love. The sec­ond the­o­rem of destruc­tion says “as love and effort increase, the prob­a­bil­ity of self-destruction approaches 1″. Maintain a healthy dis­tance to your game and do not be afraid to fail spectacularly.
  2. Harmony. Visuals, music, move­ment. Think eco­nom­i­cally: Less time means less assets means focus on har­mony of what you have.
  3. Shh... Audio is half the game experience.
  4. Make The Toy First. Try out your game mechanic first. Once you are con­vinced that this is fun to play, you can flesh out the game.
  5. Feel Something. Art games cre­ate feel­ings in the player, they have sub­text and theme. If you lack the crafts­man­ship, at least give your game an artis­tic name.
  6. Create a Low Barrier of Entry. A game must be fun within the first 15 sec­onds. If you are one of the cool kids, you include title and instruc­tion screens in the game (as for exam­ple Braid).
  7. Adjust Expectations. Introduce only ONE new con­cept to the world of gam­ing as fast and as clear as you pos­si­bly can.

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