Start with a Game Jam

you hello hi so how's everyone all good perfect so I will talk about that start with a game jam my name is Daniel Kaffee I put my picture there in case I'm very far sorry can see me these are the some of the games that I made I started with game development in 2012 developed several small games most of them game jams games for mobile or web our latest game called this one which is a very colorful things called algid shakeela or find the shape it's a game for kids five years and below so I've been hosting

organizing game jams teaching about Unity engine online or and off lines of courses with you the udemy so this is the experience part for me so start with the game jam why should we start with a game jam now before that what is a game jam now again jam down many definitions to describe a game jam but basically it's the full game development experience compressed in a very short time so we have for example and a basic thing we have the concept the art development testing publishing the game right this is now the basics ones and the lifecycle of game development same thing in the game jam but maybe in a one day or two days or three days or a week or maybe even few hours so it's that same thing that you go through them to make thing in a game jam now when we

talk about game jam usually we think about global game jam and glue them there which happens every couple of months the Ludum dare every year once the global game jam and we have here in the region then get in a lab or the game xanga which is a regional game jam somewhere between the global games and elude them there have some benefits from that and this it's happening every year this year was the ninth fear now the games anger it's an Arabic game job at 72 hours game John that happened in the weekend usually it's and the summer jammers control the theme and this is one of the good things which is comes from that Ludum dare so people announce our suggest themes and people vote for it and winner theme and told me so the people chooses that theme and they will vote on it then

after the 72 hours the same people who participated in the jam they vote on the games that they participated and pick the best one now just before that the awesome thing about the games anger is it's driven completely by the community leaders in the region so when we were talking about that this year it was the people who joined the games anger 3 more than 350 we have more than 80 games we have ski steam gathering sites this 16 gathering sites played on 10 countries we have Jordan here Algeria UAE KSA we have Iraq Tunisia Palestine Lebanon and Egypt so this is the 9th year this was the game xanga 9 now this will not

happen without the people or some people who's that organizers in this country which are most of them the leaders of the community in these countries we have people who started the games and get back in 2011 Samara bus I think is in the room we have community leaders Park and other awesome people like Joseph you already saw his session we have ali hassan ii Venera and others and these are some we have many females community leaders and case a also organizing this event so this year this was some of the games that get the voting the top ten and based on the countries based on the people who participated and vote for it so by doing some times I look here

because I need to see this because of the light is not clear so that's why all I feel like here so sometimes for if it's your first jam or more jams are coming now the first thing that I like to talk about is the one game mechanic role it's very very important very tempting to think about complicated games especially for game jams because when you come to the game John we have there are people passionate to make games and you say okay I will make and it will give you a power good ideas and you keep dreaming about bigger games and make it more complicated but I want to remind you to keep it to one game mechanic rule so for example Mario what are the one mechanic role or do you think in Mario what do you think huh jumping movement jumping it's the one mechanic even when you hit the enemies it comes from the movement and the jumping so it's all in the same general

right now you should think something like this in a very simple one mechanic role without making the complex what Mario becomes later so when you start in a game jam usually you start to thinking like this and you keep that human mind is amazing because we are very creative and you keep adding layers to that and so it will suddenly become something like this honestly I will make it super powers I'll make enemies like this and all this cetera ad ad ad and then suddenly while you are two hours in the game jam you start to think I will make it 3d and I will add even more enemies to that and make it more more complicated now this is good and you should do that that's why game jam is important in the thinking when you think about your game you start to reach a level like this and you say okay I'll make it even multiplayer it's a try and add to that and we are talking about a game John maybe it's a six hours game jam or a 48 hour game jam so you should do what

make it simpler and keep cutting from these layers and going back to this going back to this and take only the one mechanic and start from that so this is the tip one now the second one is know your limits the game jams is amazing because it will show you your limits if you are honest with yourself you know your limits you can work around that and making something very good there are many many many good games like a game called Stanley I think the parable of Stanley of style parable something Sally Parker now in the first version when they asked him why he did not like this or why it started like this because in the beginning the only thing that he knew how to make a corridors of an indoors so this was the inspiration this was the starting point for them so knowing your limits we're talking about in terms of

engines you have like for example you should know your limits are you using engine do you know how to use an engine are you a programmer or not if you are a programmer and have some small knowledge of program but you don't know how to use unity or unreal unity and unreal both of them have a learning page okay when you can go there and learn something very quick unit even have some plugins or some examples that you can make a game just with drag-and-drop ik so you can imagine even if you don't know about programming which called a playground and unity if you don't know that and you want just something simple you can go to construct three if you don't want that you're going to go to something even simpler because maybe you are just an artist you don't want anything to programming low to scratch now anything it will work in the end the player doesn't care how you build it okay how it comes okay by one night by two nights by one hour by two hours

if a game is good or not this is the important thing now in term of art same thing nor your limits if you don't know how to use the art or you don't you are not an artist there are many many websites who provide things free royalty-free one of them for example Kenny if you are not a musician or you don't know how to make a music there are again many websites that can provide AI auto-generated musics for your game like for example the click music it's basically you just say I want this scene and I want this genre I want it to be this long and this type of music and that's it you click generate something for you you can manipulate these buttons and make a background music from nothing so knowing your limits will shape your decision in the first game jam that you start now this is an example that happened in the games and gun 9th

edition which was this year the theme was parallel universe la animal more Z so when you think about it there is a game that I made it in this game jam very simple one but I thought it will be good for the two points that I talked about know your limitation and the one game mechanics for me it was only I had few hours because I was organizing also so I didn't have a lot of time so I was like thinking I would say ok this is interesting just flip it use the same colors this is the first decision I don't have an artist which mean other time so I said I will make just a square and the one game mechanics is simple I just have two squares one of them bright square one of them a little flipped they collect shapes like him if you collect it it will teleport to the other side this is the one game mechanic any object you hit it will teleport to the other side now I'm starting from this point as

an example ok so this is the first decision ok do I have a heart no make it simple nice I made it when it transferred to there I should make it and read so I know it's evil if you hit it you die this is adding a very small layer on the game mechanics so there is a game over okay and then I said okay I have this I need a story or something motivation why this is happening so I said since it's a parallel universe and I have shapes which is square one of the shapes I will move it a little bit and I will say there is two parallel universe and this earth one of them this is there this square the other one this is their square okay each one saying my square is the correct shape of the square and I'm sending it to the other universe to convince them this is the right one forcing on them and this is it

okay this is how few hours without art just one game mechanics I'm not saying it's a very good amazing game which is it's just an example of a one game mechanics how it started in a game jam always remember that I mean the people knows me usually in my talks or sessions I talk about Thomas was alone so please always remember this example this is a one of twice of one now it's more on 1 million game art so I thought it's my timer that's why I was checking so I just remember how simple it is how subtle this is 1 million game that happened and now it's everywhere it's on mobile on all platforms you can check it so Thomas was along it's a very good example always remember that now deadline of course when you put deadlines every game jam have a deadline now advice is if it was the 48 hours

just 50 say you have 24 hours because you never know what will happen okay what kind of special in programming you never know what will go bad because you missed a semi column or or or a one word or just a capital small letter okay or just have a bad dragging or you put everything correct and in the last moment click it's crushed okay so just but it have don't be shy ask for help google it please like everything is there just write it down put the name of the engine and you will find the answer no need to be afraid even if you don't know anything I started in this business with a game jam with the game Sega by the way in 2013 and always remember to have fun now for your next jams use the game jam as opportunity whatever game jam is but use it as opportunity to challenge yourself and to new things I'm not

talking about only the beginners even if you are an expert maybe there is a space or something technology you never checked it out so it will be interesting challenging yourself maybe into air or they are you plan like visually we are in this region we plant things and we will wait months to do it it tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow and it will never happen but when you say it's just two days let me try to land the air are which is very easy in some engines like unity but we test it out put your put limits on yourself like for example how old test making with limitation of colors with one button control etc try new genres and gather feedbacks and this is very important thing in the game jam which is very good opportunity to make a style of a game and you test it right away and you get results right away or within two three four days this decision will make you decide should I continue with this game or not and we have many

examples of that we have this was the timer yeah which is closed by the way I have only just 1 minute 2 minutes really ok good so for example chama-lee-on run it's a game that happened in Ludum dare 2013 they started there they tested see people liked it they continued we have the cute god simulator internal game jam and this is the thing that I always talk that's why I'm saying start with a game jam even if you are a company you have a team it's nice to taste games so maybe you have like 4 example five people or 10 people in your company you divide them to two two to make game jams and see what will go right superhot seven days fps surgeon simulator and a global Game Jam and we go back to that first question why should I start with a game jam first

step for the beginners it will motivate you to start this you will feel that it's hard but when you be a room with experts and other people will be motivated and learn from them learning from the experts sparking new ideas for the expert people or the old people in the industry testing environment which is very amazing you have already people there you can test your games right away and you put it on the website the people who will vote for it they will give you right feedback especially most of the time it will be the right feedback words most of the people would be developers or artists so they will give you the right thing without any soft talking so the last thing is the game's angular 10 next year will be the 10th are we trying to expand even more make it even bigger probably it will be somewhere summer 2020 maybe July I'm hoping you can check the website there please join me it's

not only for Arabic speaking people it's for everyone but it's in the region that's why but you can have it even in I don't know France or whatever people a place you can gather put aside talk to me it's very easy this is why you should start with a ganger thank you [Applause] that's great a couple questions I think what you've you've laid out is exactly the stuff that I think game jammers work for and why they're great but there is a question I think is there a risk that some of the game jam behaviors like doing the 24 hour 48 hour kind of intense activity could actually be kind of training people kind of some of the bad habits some of the habits that we're trying to work away from like crunch but yes or if anyone doesn't know what crunches you're lucky but some companies are doing this for months so are we are we really enforcing bad behaviors or

actually is it well it's based on how you advertise it like if you are advertising it to make like you should do it you should do it we have every two days or every two weeks we must have a game every month like there are some companies saying every month I have five or six games it will create a bad habit so they should always be in a reasonable timing giving the breaks and a small games are not in the companies we always say like please sleep please have your time it's not like when you say 48 hours you shouldn't have stay awake 48 hours no one can do that you will not make a game when you are angry or sad so yeah yeah maybe how how you look like you

looked at it as a positive thing which is good but I'd like I don't see it in this way I prefer it no you take your time and making the games even if it was 48 hours like you think about it and leave it for an hour or half an hour take a break do something play a game or whatever and get back to it and you have more ideas to add to that you don't feel that Briggs or that I love when you love what you're doing when you enjoying it yeah this is you don't feel that he's talking about more like keep doing that yeah like imagine is what is visualizing of it but for few months I think this is the thing it's like actually some I think you're exactly right that's actually there's a moment of joy that comes up the intensity of the struggle to complete this thing this amorphous being that we we're creating but if it

becomes institutionalized I think there's a worry run it's a worry that I don't I don't talk about alone as lots of people who have a worry about it yeah and I think it's worth mentioning just because I want to remind us when we're doing game jams it's supposed to be fun they supposed to be creative and we're supposed to be creating a space to actually explore our creativity and our prowess as developers if that makes sense yeah you discover new things like new partners and you know everything that's why it should be for have fun that's right in the tip number five is have fun because it's a fun activity exactly and it's an amazing crazy price so I don't get any quick questions I have to know your limits and actually know something new yeah to learn something new Warren so now what usually what I do it will be based on the like at the time when they announced the the jam where there is the theme I will sit down okay what's my resources what can I do

can I do a VR game now can I do our game now do I have an artist do I have a music do I know this knowledge or not what I need to learn and how long does it take this is to discover my limits now in term of generous things like this I just look at my games what I'd done before is it all platforms so I need to check something new like for example delay to the last game that we've done it's a kids game five years or below it's a new thing for me like I learn things I never knew about them I learned that the shape when you put it the collider should be much bigger because the finger of the kids it's not they cannot focus on that so things like this it's a new thing yeah we should do a safer they're only kind of experimental so it's some people in our age game dance specifically because they're gonna try one technique yeah so you know the technique you don't have to do yet and you use it to try it out and offer this

case well you'll do the kind of treat URLs and so on and so forth before you get to the game jam and now I'm going to use it yeah I mean I don't I just sit there and judge things and pretend to design things and then the other people do yeah everywhere I have a very small story in 2012 I learned about unity that there is something called unity it's another engine it's great so I spent most of the time trying to okay I will learn everything in unity then I will do the first big game and the various big games are a very simple game it's just a shootin spaceship shooting game it took months without doing it because I'm just trying to learn until 2013 when the game Zenga happened and I said ok that's it I have three days I must do something even if it was very simple and other game engines to exist yeah that's why I put other games you see really in xanga I was starting a company to make Harper casual game cool so I wanted to try it

in Sunday night and I made a game in four hours called parallel universe yes yes and because it's one of the windows yeah what's happy to know my limits in hyper casual if I can do in four hours game that everyone can enjoy cool congratulation and the fact that you did that in four hours is incredibly clever you know I mean I don't mean I know I'm trying to patronize here it's really just focusing in and actually what's the one thing I want to do I'm gonna do this do it you don't have to spend the whole period of time doing it but often I find you end up spending wish you had like four hours more or two days more and that's okay yeah so we're gonna wrap up and any last chance for a question there's one over here music to my kevie for you I just wanted to ask you did you ever work in a game that took more than one month or two for our console not a

mobile well the thing is that the game start taking more like more than a month it's because I have like other things to do like maybe a full-time job or something like this because not I'm fully focusing but when you look at the final project that you do it definitely not more than a month so it's all in this criteria I have a PC game it's a very old one it's a horror game but no definitely not more than a month when you're talking about the full-time job like imagine eight hours of working on the game a month is enough to do most of the basics things definitely especially if it was a hyper casual it's it's even less life cycle check-in as well is I have to mention friend of Mines game Kwang has a built this game called mammal cat it's a very simple kind of space harrier style game with the kind of chinese dog cat you got to move around and he built this at castle jam and it was amazing absolutely

he spent the last year and half two years basically trying to get it ready for release you you can take some of those games and try to make something of them but the level of what you still need to go through to make it a commercial game can be significant and as long as you're aware then it's okay but knowing that you can go into a game jam do something and throw it away is powerful and every once in a while you'll do something that's so good you realize it's gotta be made into a game and you're gonna spend the time to actually invest in it and of course please go see ma'am al khair castle which is mammal castle while centered like if anyone wants it just DM me it's gonna be a great little game away because there are small games when you're testing it it's very very important I think crossroads even one time I need an interview with them they had a big project the people who developed cross the road they stopped they said okay just one week I think doing something like that to develop a game with this concept and just see what

will happen so it was a break from a bigger game and look wave a cup yeah it is yeah I was not enough to interview mad at casual connected yeah I'm Stefan we had lots of fun conversation about how they got round to all that they're really cool guys okay on that note thank you very much for that thank you thank you everybody for you