Why I don't do Game Jams (but maybe YOU should!)

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

💬 Here's my 5 Reasons on Why I don't do Game Jams, and 5 Reasons on Why maybe YOU should! 🌍 Get my Complete Courses! ✅ unitycodemonkey.com/courses 🔴 RELATED VIDEOS 🔴 I made Squid Game but you play as a Guard! kzbin.info/www/bejne/epCVk3qmgsqJarc My Game Dev Journey (40+ Games! | mIRC to Flash to Steam) kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZqvWlIOclLpkjLs How much MONEY did my Indie Game make? Battle Royale Tycoon (Steam) kzbin.info/www/bejne/m2jGqH2nq9aSfNE Grid System in Unity kzbin.info/aero/PLzDRvYVwl53uhO8yhqxcyjDImRjO9W722 I made a RACING RTS! (Mix and Game Jam 2020) kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3_SqoOwaLF2r5I Awesome House Building System! (Castle, Hut, Mansion, City, Village) kzbin.info/www/bejne/eZXGn2mrgJ6ahtE Game Design BREAKDOWN Valheim kzbin.info/www/bejne/pIW8pJVvpM5_frc How it's Made: Outer Wilds | Scout Probe Launcher kzbin.info/www/bejne/bGi6gJV8p7yjiMk

[@catafest]

I saw your games on Steam can you make a video tutorial about how can add games on steam. Thank you.

[@CCV334]

You bring up a lot of very good points and I like how you mentioned that these are your reasons. I find game jams extremely useful because the theme releases me from the cognitive burden of coming up with a concept that’s “good”. The time limit also forces me to create a smaller scoped game and not overthink or give up on an idea entirely.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

That's a great point, if you have issues with perfection then having a forced time limit is a huge help!

[@rmt3589]

That encourages me to do a game jam even more! I'm a perfectionist that struggles to finish things.

[@FM_GOBi]

Baba Is You, Don't Starve, Celest, Super Hot, Surgeon Simulator, Goat Simulator and many other games started as Game Jam entries. And after getting good feedback, they were turned into full blown games. Initial popularity help boost sales as well. But I do understand your point of view. There are definitely good reasons to invest that time and energy elsewhere, and even end up being more productive overall.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

If you do manage to make a game jam game that tons of people love then yup turning that into a complete game would definitely be my advice! Those are all excellent examples but keep in mind those are the extreme minority so don't expect that to happen to you.

[@Neverjam]

Aww, this was refreshing! The stress aspect was a huge no no for me, but also felt really weird never having done one and skipping straight to making a full game :D Even made my gamedev name as a reference to it!

[@ZahhibbDev]

The stress aspect actually is the allure for me in game jams because I feel that I learn how to handle stress better by having it forced on me, and I should say I abhor stressful situations as well but want to be better at controlling it. :p I also take quite lengthy breaks between each game jam so as not to burn myself out, so maybe 1 game jam every 3rd month or so. PS. I have seen images and gifs of your spider battling game around reddit/youtube, and I love the idea and aesthetics of it. It looks similar to Stick Fight, in good ways! :)

[@Neverjam]

@@ZahhibbDev Hmm, thats probably a healthier way to look at it, treat it as an exercise to overcome stress, might help with that annoying voice that panics every time something isn't "perfect"... whatever that means. Maybe be something for me to think about when I have free time again. Thanks for the nice words about SpiderHeck!

[@kellygallagher7148]

I like the social aspect of game jams. You can meet new people, share ideas, get feedback, teach and learn. I don't often get to interact with other amateur game developers.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Yup that's a very good reason to do them!

[@ashlit1998]

I loved your tips and I do agree, 48h for a newbie is way too little time for a first game jam, but it's great to give them a taste of what making a game is actually like. My first ever game jam had me writing very very basic code, a friend doing the art, and then us messing up the project by trying to copy paste our unity files instead of using collab/git. I've found one week long game jams to be much more manageable, especially since you won't need to crunch as much as in the shorter jams. One thing I'd love to add for your tips is that game jams allow you to scope projects more efficiently. When you've only got 48h/one week to create a game, all feature creep must be discarded, and even what you initially thought was doable feels like it's too much.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Yup learning how to manage scope is a hugely useful skill

[@rib_rob_personal]

Another point to add: game jams are a great way to make friends and network. Personally I don't like "networking events" because I'm quite introverted and never know what to talk about. I also don't think they're effective in general tbh. I do so so much better in casual settings where I actually get to show off my skills. It's also how I made a good few friends. If you want to do a game jam I highly recommend doing one in person if you can.

[@peterbelanger4094]

Sounds like Game jams suck. I hate people.

[@LowLevelLemmy]

When you "reuse code" do you just open up a previous project and copy paste? Or do you export them into Unity packages?

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Both, I usually have a project with many of the classes that I reuse often, and then I have .unityproject files for lots of things I've done in the videos, exactly what is available to download from the website.

[@LowLevelLemmy]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity I see, thank you 😄

[@RadmanUltra]

Thanks a lot for this! i was wondering whether or not i should do game jams! I didn't think of these pros and cons to the whole game jams thing. subbed

[@thrifash]

I've done 7 game jams so far. I agree with a lot of your points. I space them out only do 1 or 2 a year. Its great to have a deadline and gives me an opportunity to try different ideas.

I very much appreciate this video! I have definitely undermined my skills and expertise. I took an honest look at my achievements while watching your video and realized that I've done a lot of games and definitely don't have to practice project management skills, game scope, team work and other similar things you mentioned in the video. The reason why I like game jams is if there's a nice theme and will give me a boost to do something different. But the biggest reason why I seldom do game jams is that I can't handle crunch well at all. I've been working in game companies and for me crunches don't put me into a flow state, or just briefly if nothing breaks and things run smoothly. I've been burned out because of unhealthy work environments. My mind and body are not willing to cross certain limits anymore. I hate it if, for example, I have to start taking too many shortcuts and will start writing spaghetti code that works for the duration of the jam maybe, but will be more or less useless afterwards. I don't also like how writing code in that manner makes feel. The same happens to me in professional crunch situations as well. I just try to make things work, code quality goes down and I'll have to fix things later. But overall I still love the idea of game jams! What I like most about them is the new ideas that their restrictions and themes will help one come up with.

[@wakajak8634]

I like how you show both the pros and cons to almost any topic. It really promotes a more balanced discussion.

[@fallingwallgames6680]

Getting the community feedback has been immensely helpful for me. A jam comes with a small but more or less guaranteed instant audience, your fellow participants. I've done 9 jams so far and while I'm slowing down to focus on longer projects, I still get a lot of value out of the process.

[@migcreatesgames2622]

I completed and participated in over 20 or more game jams and it does help with being productive and setting goals for myself. I now just do prototypes and market them on social media to see if they get any good reviews or ideas.

[@drakel5943]

My company (Backtrace IO) hosts game jams sometimes and this got me thinking it would be cool to host one that makes users build on top of an old project / past game jam submission (and over a longer period like a couple weeks). Would be a cool way to allow for people to get more experience working in an existing code base / tackling some polish items and stuff. Could even offer a prize for the "most improved" game in addition to the "best" game

[@taterino2722]

As a game design student, reasons 3 and 5 are the main issues for me. I do want to do a game jam, hopefully before my first internship. However, I already have a hard enough time learning and dealing with all new class material and academic assignments/projects. Plus, I work too, with one of my shifts being on the weekend. However, I still understand why game jams are a good thing, as you get great practice, and it's not the end of the world if you're not an expert programmer or artist. Heck, some game jams don't even require you to make an actual video game. But as a future game dev, it feels like I HAVE to do a game jam in order to get ahead. It'll look good on resumes, portfolios, and help you make connections and learn. But in that sense, it'll feel like I'm wasting my time if I don't participate. Everything's already competitive enough, so the notion of game jam experience being a requirement doesn't sit too well with me. It takes me back to my college application days, where you HAD to have some extracurricular activities or some other non-academic passion to have a better shot at getting admitted. Hopefully, things will get easier, but there's just so much that I have to do to make this happen.

[@alaslipknot]

the 2nd point doesn't make sense, there isn't a single Game Jam that i know of that discourage you from using code libraries, especially one as generic and versatile as your tile system, when game jams says don't re-use old code, they basically mean not to copy-past old *mechanics* that you already did

[@Soul-Burn]

In fact, it's even encouraged to release your libraries to the public and then you're free to reuse them in your games, as it is then a public library available to everyone.

[@kaneadams5191]

I just took part in my first ever game jam with the sole purpose being to learn about the team that I will be working with next year for my degree's group project

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

That's a great goal, I hope you learned a lot!

[@AJ213Probably]

I've found that with enough expereince its probably better to just to set deadlines for projects you do and do smaller projects for the purpose of learning something. Like dedicating a month to making a minecraft clone or something with a hard deadline

[@Braneloc]

Maybe it's time for a Code Monkey jam.

[@arvinea]

Wow, big brain moment

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Heh maybe one day when I find the time! If I do I'll certainly make one with some interesting rules instead of just another game jam

[@MarushiaDark316]

I know you have a lot going on, but could you perhaps do a video talking about financial independence. For instance, a lot of people would love to spend their days doing game dev like you, but they have to work a full-time job or sometimes two, plus other obligations like family. So how would you advise someone to transition from where they are to where you are, especially if working solo rather than for a company, because I see this as self-reinforcing. The more time you can invest in craft, the better you get, meaning your skills are more marketable; but getting that initial foothold can be tough.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

That is definitely an important topic but it's also very specific to wherever you live and your personal circumstances so I'm not sure I'm the best person to talk about that. There's great finance channels like Graham Stephan and Two Cents which are great at teaching finance. For me, thankfully Portugal has a low cost of living so that's how I managed to make it full time, when I moved out of my parents house I as living on €750 and my first 2 Steam games were good enough to generate that. Would have been impossible if I lived in something like San Francisco and I needed €4000 just to survive. The answer is really find the way to get the lowest cost of living while making your game, or do it on the side and only quit your main job when you're already making more from your games.

[@ilyanazarov7001]

Yeah. After such a "break", I had to take an even longer break in order to be able to return to my normal daily routines and to my bigger project.

[@CRUMVIII]

I always kinda wanted to do a game jam but I always decide against it since I still haven't finished a game yet. But like you said, that's a good reason to do it. A bit of a vicious circle for me. Thankfully, I should be able to be done before the end of the year. Hopefully. (already delayed a few times. :< )

[@prodevus]

Ive been making games for 8 years, never finished one. Been thinking the same lol

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Yup definitely go through it at least once so you know what it's like to take a project from start to finish. It will help you when you get back to your long term project. Best of luck!

[@thatAIMLESSguy]

@@prodevus 💀💀

[@MaruskaStarshaya]

I also were afraid of it, but in the end you lose nothing if you can't finish it. I finally learner how to finish - my motivation was "imagine how cool it will be people would play my game and have fun" - and they had fun, it was the best part to read how people liked my game, best memories :)

[@CRUMVIII]

@@MaruskaStarshaya Well in my case it's more a "I want to prove I can do it" mentality which is why for me it's important to finish at least one working game (even tho I'm reaching the point where I just want to be done so I can move on. XD). Whether people like it or not will be another thing entirely but it's like a case of "at least I did everything in my power and skill range". Grats on finishing yours tho. That's really cool to hear people liked it. :D

[@flamingodev]

I tried participating on gamejams but since I have a job and the weekend is the only time I can rest, I realized that the stress is really not worth it for me. However, I really like the restrictions and the topics what some jams have, so now I'm trying out a new method where I join a gamejam, but totally ignore the deadline. I still give myself deadlines, but they are more forgiving than the usual 48 hours what most jams have.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

That's an interesting approach, I hope you works for you, just focus on learning and improving your skills!

[@MaruskaStarshaya]

there are jams with a week/month duration so you shouldn't rush yourself. I've never completed 48-72 hour jams - it was too tough

[@joeman123964]

I'm still learning unity and stuff and i hope to be good. I'm a software engineer and never tried game development and its super fun. what game genre is a decent start? like something i can learn the core processes of unity while being able to use assets and make a game within a few days? i was thinking a sort of simple hack n slash game with a simple power up you can grab. again, something super simple. what types of games did you guys make for the first time. i want to have finished projects each time.

[@juanchogames999]

Try the basic games like: Tetris Snake Pong While you make these games, you will learn how to use unity (interface and other tools)

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Start with the most basic game possible, (I like Flappy Bird) to learn the absolute basics. Remake a bunch of classic games and slowly increase in complexity, and yes do make sure you finish those projects so you learn how to finish games kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJ3GoKNmqt15f7M

[@joeman123964]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity appreciate the help! I'll check out your videos and stick with it.

[@petesavage5846]

Once you have an idea of the unity interface don't follow full game tutorials. You will learn quicker this way. GMTK has a video that explains why this is. Decide on a simple game and only look up the individual components not the whole game.

[@joeman123964]

@@petesavage5846 yeah so far i have been looking up tutorials on specific concepts. like an inventory or how to male 3rd person camera etc. as far as the game goes i just started making up my own stuff. solid advice though thanks!

[@leosalazar9213]

And what if people were too hard rating on your game ???, For example giving it bad rates, specially in art category, while you create all the assets And there was a lot of games rated better than mine with only flipped copy / pasted assets ??? Is the first jam I entered and I don´t plant to enter on another one in a long time, really, sometimes Idk how people vote. I voted every game and i wasn´t voted even for half of the people of the jam, because people wasn´t voting because they think, the ones with more votes, will win. Now I have learned that even if in the jam they say, create your own game assets, they will have more value and people will vote you high on that category. ( why the misleading ) It´s a lie. people vote better, flipped Pre-Made Assets. And same with other categories. Seriouslly in my case, dissapointing and discouraging. Doesn´t seem like a fair criteria. But if you enter on a jam, I wish you luck and don´t be so kind at the time of rating.

[@RonioFOX]

How to create a leveling system like Skyrim? You get better at the skills you use?

[@fluffy6923]

For me the reason is simple. I don't want to make crappy games and I don't know a single game jam game I would enjoy.

[@badscotsman]

Nice take on game jams... both pros and cons! Area of critique on the video format though... the text was very difficult to read, especially on mobile. Make it larger, less stylized, higher contrast with backgrounds (pretty much just follow accessibility design guidelines - you know, like same as when you're doing UI/UX design in your commercial games).

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Which text? The one on the top left corner? I did try to add a shadow to make it have more contrast, maybe next time I'll choose some more static videos for the background footage.

[@badscotsman]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity honestly, it was most of the text except for the headings because they are bigger. So, the numbered list in the middle of the screen would be an example. Love your videos though, thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience!

[@nilankadamayanthi1740]

Hi, can you do a video about Procedural animation And make a spider walk animation using it ?

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

I've been researching the Animation Rigging package so yup next month I'd like to do some experiments like that one

[@KalponicGames]

Hoping to get some more programming c# course from you instead of visual scripting. I feel if I keep doing and following your style I will for sure get way much better than what I am currently. I really like your course structures instead of single videos. For me, game jams are something that brings audience and provide some marketing for your game to be published. So I attend those. When I made games w/o doing jams the game was not viewed by anyone at all but game jam ones are more likely to get played by other people.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Gathering an audience could be a valid strategy for doing Game Jams, the channel Vimlark pretty much did exactly that which might help him whenever he does a premium title.

[@muhammadahmadyousaf2824]

Does brackeys game jam allow the use of paid assets ?

[@salvatorefabio3557]

Going into the video I imagined what your reasons would be and turns out I was right lol In my opinion it all comes down to the fact that jams can be a great experience to participate in but, first and foremost, they are supposed to be fun If they become a source of stress then they lose their primary reason

[@MaruskaStarshaya]

I find stress as a fun part of a jam - being fueled up with energy to compete with my laziness to do everything in time

[@salvatorefabio3557]

@@MaruskaStarshaya As a lazy person who never spends more than 3/4 hours a day making games I agree. It can be a nice change of pace. The issue is that, if you are a professional dev (like Codemonkey) then forcing game jams into your already busy schedule might lead to crunch. The important thing imo is to understand the difference between “good” crunch (ex. Pulling an all-nighter every once in a while because you feel like it) and “bad crunch” (ex. Working 24/7 nonstop because it’s become the standard in the industry, without taking care of yourself physically and mentally)

[@omerpasa3328]

My main reason is, my only time of developing is game jams xd except summer. And it is nice to forge teams

[@skizooooooooo]

I think if you compare the strict time limit of Game Jams to that of Crunch, then you have to also say that basically anything competitive encourages it too. The thing is a game, it's designed to get you to work hard and win. Isn't that what the idea of crunch is?

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

That's why I said it's a cost-benefit analysis. If you benefit a lot from a Game jam, then those 48 hours where you're working 30-35 hours might be worth it, but if not then you're just suffering for no benefit. Crunch is always a very negative cost, it's up to you to decide if it benefits outweigh that negative.

[@this-is-gamedev]

Video on point! I totally agree on the fact that it's stressful, especially game jams that are just 2 days. Some take place over 1-2 weeks, which is honestly more fun.

[@markedforstrike]

Lets say it like that - game jams are like game development kindergarden. Awesome place to learn new things and train some skills, but "adult" devs are too busy and dont have enough time I personally would not say GJ are stressful, but they can encourage crunches and unhealthy time management. Which arw skills that can be learned on GJ)))

[@vishwahsiva8738]

Well but you can conduct a game jam I don't think it will take more time in your life because most of the work is done by community itself, And I really want a CODE MONKEY GAME JAM please do it

[@csaratakij6339]

You should do a game jam.

[@ThankYouESM]

That all said... Code Monkey Jams is what we need, especially to create games under 10 MB... under 5 MB... and even under 1 MB.

[@watercat1248]

If this the case off game jem it pointless for my for multiple reasons 1. The way I handheld my project is with reuse my own assets 2. I never have problem find I game ideas 3. Time pressure this role is one of the reasons I never give I try I know how to handle my own project and I'm aware that most off my project is large projects and I will not fhinsh eny time soon however I have already create 1 playble video for that perposh and I perfer samthin good and stable for making I game in few days and everyone to forget the existing I don't have eny problem with game jem and the are sam stuff that I like 1. The fact you have specific them 2. For the stuff that you mention you said is easy to work with team I will like to see the are to work as team with Saman The are multiple reasons that I will like to find I team but this has nothing to do with game James

[@avshkabura]

Я сделал игру которая на последнем гейм джеме выиграла номинацию - самая креативная) получился хороший пиар для компании

[@theashbot4097]

you say it is good for beginners to reuse code but you have not made a video on how to. so beginners like me do not know how to reuse code. I would appreciate if you made a video on how to make namespaces or some thing like that. thank you.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

There's no "how to", you literally just copy the .cs file from one project to the other, that's it, there's nothing else to it When I make all the systems that I've built upon my Grid System I literally just copy the last GridSystem.cs onto the next project, that's it. unitycodemonkey.com/video.php?v=gkCBCCKeais

[@theashbot4097]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity what if I want to make some thing like CodeMokey.Utilities using a namespace I thought you could make a short tutorial on namespaces

[@Aeroxima]

​@@CodeMonkeyUnity I know it's an old comment, but it really helps to hear. Feels like I partly needed that permission to reuse things I made before, without looking at it like it's cheating. Also I found the video trying to figure out if that's allowed in jams, and it remains ambiguous, lol.

[@thg1nrediar]

Good

[@TheJungaBoon]

I've only done two game jams so far, both about a week or two in length. They were fun, and reminded me of my old film-making days. Same crew now as back then too, which is funny.

[@DiDev]

Olá

[@amiteshwarsingh6099]

Thank goodness , code monkey does not participate in game jams , i would have no chance to win !!

[@Knuckles2761]

Jams are about people, teamwork and connections. You know, this is why they called Jams. Solo participation suppose to be an anomaly. And you have only one argument about people and it was like 5 sec long. Again - the most important part about jams is ignored in this video.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

These are my reasons and I work solo so for me yes that is not a reason to do a game jam. If you like working in a team then yes exactly like I mentioned game jams are a great way of seeing if you work well together.

[@juandaviddiazgarcia6216]

I'd add two extra advantages: 1. Meet new people with different set of skills. If I'm a programmer who doesn't know about art, a game jam would be a great opportunity to meet an artist and test in real time if I can work with him (do his/her skills fit my project needs? Does he/she know how to work as a team? etc..) 2. Quickly prototype a game idea. If I'm facing my next big project, I like to use game jams as a way to force myself to quickly prototype something and see if it's fun. Additionally, you can get feedback from other participants, which is extremely useful in determining the project viability in the long term.

[@stuart5980]

Hey one question. I'm planning on working on a more story/lore focused game, are there any assets or tutorials that you recommend for working with lots of in-game text?

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Definitely do something to animate the text, I recently played Dodgeball Academia which has tons of text and all the effects make it look awesome. For assets there's this one although I haven't used it myself assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/gui/text-animator-for-unity-158707?aid=1101l96nj And there's a bunch of visual tools for managing dialog but also never tried them assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/integration/storyteller-97715?aid=1101l96nj assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/ai/dialogue-system-for-unity-11672?aid=1101l96nj

[@Orange-qc6ub]

I have over 200 youtube subscriptions, what's another? lol

[@nou5253]

Most game jams are just made by people that got so lazy after their success on KZbin or for whatever other reason (like brakeys for example) so they decreased or stopped entirely from making new content but still they want to see their name mentioned in the Game dev field with doing nothing and let the people do the work.

[@_GhostMiner]

*0:55** E N H A N C E ! !*

[@Kruku666]

lol crunch can cause physical and mental issues - video-map-Poland-Warsaw-CDPR XD on point ;) surprising how there are still no union in game dev ;/ with crunch the creativity will just be pushed to the toilet by the CEOs in the industry ;/

[@jozimastar95]

time limit gives me depression

FIRST!

Not fast enough, again ;-)

[@innovativename7438]

Idea: Make Something like teardown

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Yup! Whenever I find the time to research Voxels that's exactly the kind of thing I'd love to try making.

[@yncor9756]

Hiiii