The Very Serious Juniper Dev Game Jam

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The Very Serious Juniper Dev Game Jam community

Discuss: How did it go? Show your games! 🎮

A topic by EmberNoGlow created 82 days ago Views: 239 Replies: 17

Viewing posts 1 to 9

EmberNoGlowSubmitted82 days ago

Preface: This isn't a rate-for-rate thread. I'd love to hear how your jam went and have a genuine discussion about our experiences.

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a great jam!

How was it for you? Did everything go as planned, or did things fall apart halfway through? What are you most proud of, and what would you do differently next time?

This was my third jam. Funny enough, I ended up making my game in a single day after our original team plan didn't work out. That's jams for you - you never know what's going to happen, and sometimes you just have to adapt!

I ended up with a small game inspired by old mobile games, made in Godot. If anyone feels like taking a look, I'd really appreciate honest feedback!

Game: embernoglow.itch.io/spinning-squeezer (rate/4716343)

Looking forward to hearing your stories, and good luck with your future projects! 💕💕

chaosman66@Submitted82 days ago

I learned a lot about how to make a game is a few days, what can and can't be done, and learned a lot from the feedback i've got.
10/10 would jam again.

Game: /jam/theveryseriousjuniperdevgamejam/rate/4694321

EmberNoGlowSubmitted82 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

Great job! And WOW, JUNIPER HERSELF COMMENTED ON YOUR GAME! Lucky you)

gearbeitetSubmitted82 days ago (2 edits)

I managed to do something I'm proud of, and that I could see myself turning into a full game in the future. Feels good to finally somewhat finish a project after 10 years of just making prototypes. I also possibly wrote the most spaghetti code I've ever written in my entire life, but hey, it works.
https://gearbeitet.itch.io/franky-fresh-flips

EmberNoGlowSubmitted82 days ago

It works - and that's good enough! 10 years in the industry... Where did you start? btw good game)

gearbeitetSubmitted82 days ago (2 edits)

I wouldn't say I'm in the industry per se, it's just that making games has been a hobby of mine since I was a kid. Started out in RPG Maker XP, moved to Construct 2 when it came out, and then started learning actual programming in GameMaker, which I used to make my last game back in 2015-ish. Been kind of stuck ever since then. Glad you enjoyed the game.

EmberNoGlowSubmitted82 days ago

"The path of a true fighter" 🔥

Cathode InteractiveSubmitted82 days ago

This was my first solo jam experience, I had done the art for other jams in the past, but this was new for me. I am super proud of my game Cart Wars and I would love to do this jam again, no regrets. I got my main mechanic of movement down on the first weekend, but after that, I had less spare time and more bugs as the game expanded. It was such a good thing to do as I learnt the whole process of putting a game on itch and marketing it to other devs. I'm already working on a full version of my game, so watch out for that. I tried to predict my ranking overall and I thought about 200th, so we'll see!

I am rating games on another thread, so if you need some, check that out. Bye!

EmberNoGlowSubmitted82 days ago

Making games solo is hard! But still, great job! 200th place – I think it will be tough, probably practically impossible, but who knows, maybe luck is on your side, but whatever happens, it's valuable experience! Good luck!

Cathode InteractiveSubmitted82 days ago

Thanks! I tried to figure it out by using my 80 ratings and at 61st most ranked (currently) then I also considered my mostly positive comments (you're probably right though, realistically, top 1000)

EmberNoGlowSubmitted82 days ago

Oh, that's not a small number, I think you'll be in the top 1000! (It depends, of course, on what rating it is.) gg!

EnakkaSubmitted82 days ago

My two friends and I signed up for this and it was all three of our first time making a game. We put a lot of time into it, combined probably 100-150 hours. That being said we made a lot of mistakes due to our Inexperience. We ran into a lot of workflow bottle necking. At times I had to wait 36+ hr doing next to nothing as I was waiting on others to finish assets. In our recap we have figured out way to avoid this in the future such as using placeholder, ad prioritizing certain tasks over others. in the end the difference between what we had 48 hrs prior and then at the due date was a night and day difference. I'm not going to say our game is world changing, because it isn't but it most certainly changed our world. That being said I really do think that the game is very good for being made in 7 days, and especially for it being our first time. We would love if you would try it out!
https://enakka.itch.io/38-special-black

EmberNoGlowSubmitted82 days ago

Hi!

100-150 hours?! You machines! There are 168 hours in a week, haven't you slept?!

Regarding mistakes, I can give you some advice:

Make the easy games, but do them well. You can even clone mobile/browser casual games (but add your own mechanics). Many, like me, get carried away by ambition.

Don't work yourself to the bone. It's for your own health. And besides, breaks increase your productivity.

Using task managers is a waste of time. Just have a clear plan (which is already automatic for game clones).

YOU DON'T NEED TO WAIT FOR ASSETS. Your team should have assigned responsibilities. One artist, one programmer, one sound engineer. THAT'S IT. If you have three programmers, then yes, it's chaos. And most importantly, MAKE A PROTOTYPE WITHOUT GRAPHICS FIRST! Because you'll slow yourself down. Making gray cubes isn't scary, it's effective.

Go for it!

The way to create games is to learn from your mistakes. Good luck in the future projects!

Mr. Pickles 12Submitted82 days ago

It's been about a year since I started learning gamedev and this was my first game jam. I tend to work slow due to unclear visions, burnouts etc etc, so I wasn't expecting to have a finished game in a week.

Somehow, I got my sh*t together for a whole week and made something I can say I'm proud of. There are flaws I should have taken care of in hindsight, and the game is built on a cardboard infrastructure, but it ended up good enough. Reading the feedback makes me smile like an idiot for an hour so it was all worth it.

I'll definitely do it again, maybe next time with a team to make sure I don't go insane.

https://mr-pickles-12.itch.io/king-of-the-wheel

EmberNoGlowSubmitted82 days ago

Hi! Burnout - that's a familiar feeling! I've even written many articles about it, which have resulted in a lot of heartfelt feedback. No, you're not an idiot; everyone feels happy when they read positive feedback! That's normal! The main thing is that you enjoy doing it.

Wedoo1234Submitted82 days ago

This was also my third jam, although I only learnt game dev a few months ago. My game went well and I am proud of the result. I learnt movement and velocity more, I learnt how to do enemy spawning, upgrade systems and overall learnt a lot about Godot. There are definitely some flaws in my game, and some areas which could use a little improvement.

I love participating in game jams. The two other game jams I participated in had around 100 people, so this is my first big one. I love game jams because I can easily learn a lot about game dev without getting tired or burnt out, I can make a finished game I am proud of and I can play other amazing games.

Next time, I would put more time into planning. I had almost no plan, apart from a few notes. The no plan issue meant that I didn't know exactly what I should be working on at the time, which lead to me adding content on the second last day (mainly the upgrade system) and then it feeling unfinished. The upgrade system does work, but if I had planned better, I could have added it earlier, then it could have been better. Apart from that, though, I am very happy with my game.

If you want to play my game, here it is - Neon Dasher by Wedoo1234

EmergencyHamSubmitted82 days ago

This has been my first game jam and my first time making a full game. I started learning game development shortly before the jam was announced since I watched other game dev youtubers and thought I should give it a try. I have made some small technically playable games that were just meant to learn godot but they were not fun, not balanced, and had terrible dev art lol. By joining this jam, I hoped it would give me the motivation to fully complete a game. It definitely did and I'm super proud of it!

When I did make my game public, I only hoped to get at least one or two comments or plays since I was just another person who was their first time making a game. I would have never expected to get as many comments and ratings as I have now. All of the kind feedback on my game has felt so unreal and I have been loving every step of the journey.

When I went into this jam, I really hoped that I could win the best first game prize. However now that I have played over 100 other games and seen all the effort other people put in their games, it made me realize that the reason for a game jam is not to win but to be able to learn and challenge yourself. Now with this new definition I decided that I personally won since I was able to complete my first game! (Although I still am hoping for a good placement lol)

Seeing all of the other entries is also very intimidating but there are so many other first-time jammers or first game completed that it makes me thankful that Juniper decided to host this jam. Both for giving me the motivation to be able to finish something I created, and for giving other people the opportunity too. I have loved being a part of this community and as tired as I am, I am going to be sad when it's over. I guess the best thing to do is to make the most out of the time that's left! It also makes me happy to see that many other people are enjoying this experience as much as I am.

With the jam wrapping up I'm trying to rate as many games as possible and hope my game will reach my goal of 70+ ratings. Here is my game if anyone would like to play it after reading all of this: Project Helix. Thank you so much if you took the time to read or play my game! I'm wishing everyone the best of luck with their games!

candyhen127Submitted82 days ago

This is my first jam, though I've worked on solo projects before and for club projects. Really proud of my work here! I really like how I tied everything back to the main "Spin to Win" mechanics for my game. Especially proud of finishing it since I'm working an internship this summer and didn't have much time throughout the week to spend on the game!

It's been really great to get feedback from everyone and playing everyone else's games! I'm a little over 50 ratings now, and I think I've also played around 50. There's some really impressive work people are doing!

/jam/theveryseriousjuniperdevgamejam/rate/4708018