Hi all! So this past weekend I participated in the first Global Game Jam in the history of humanity, the world, and (why not) maybe even the universe. I went to the Paris one, which was hosted by Mekensleep.
We started off with introductions. There were 10 of us there to develop, with a mix of some professionals and some hopefuls, and a decent distribution of specialities: 3 audio, 2 artists, 3 programmers, 2 designers. Then we watched Kyle Gabler's keynote video. Then Olivier, the big boss of Mekensleep and our host/cheerleader for the GGJ, gave us our constraints:
1. Session of play must be 5 minutes or less.
2. Theme: "As long as we have eachother, we will never run out of problems."
3. Incorporate one of the following adjectives into the game: developing, falsifying, or trapped. (The set of adjectives we could use is the constraint that changed from time zone to time zone).
So we set out to brainstorm for 15 minutes, and then we came back together and pitched our ideas. Following an extensive voting process based on fun, feasibility and fidelity to the constraints, we eliminated many of the concepts and ended up with three projects. The groups were formed, and in the end, we all succeeded in making playable, living games!
REONS: Sort of a god-game, but you destroy your creatures instead of trying to preserve them. I guess anit-god game? Devil game?? Very cool atmosphere to it due to the minimalist look and awesome sound, they meshed together well.
BOB & BOB: Actually the full title is:
The ex chipendales Bob & Bob in : together in the dark, raiders of Lua temple.
Very cheeky humor in this one, it's a collaborative adventure/escape game. The old-school look was great, and gave center stage to the cooperative and field-of-view elements.
WALTZ APPLE: A dance/rhythm game set to a waltz. Very cute look thanks to Chen, our graphic artist. Johan our programmer stayed up the entire 48 hours to make it work, and it really does! I did the music and some of the choreography. It's played by two players (or one player with two hands) on a keyboard, moving in steps to the music. Due to some hardware issues, it's only for Linux, but the three of us might work on it some more later on.
A great experience, and I'm very glad to have participated. I think 48 hours as opposed to 24 is a better timeframe for a game jam: there's less of that "this is absolutely insane there's no way we can hack this together in 24 hours" feeling, and more time to get to know the other participants. Looking forward to the next Global Game Jam!
Waltz Apple's Valse (mp3)
Click to download!
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