Welcome to WIZARD JAM

[Dinosaursssssss]

 

Use this subforum to make development log threads, recruit folks, and chat about development related stuff!

 

HERE'S THE ITCH.IO PAGE WHERE YOU CAN SUBMIT : It's An Itchio

Date : April 10 - 24

Theme: Episode Titles!
The theme is optional, but also pretty broad, so I imagine you'll be able to fit your idea into one of the 200+ absurd episode names.
This page will show you a random episode title (thank you Panzorfork for this)
This page has every episode title.

Never made a game? No idea what engine to use? Check out Sortingh.at by Zoe Quinn for figuring out what tools to use.

Free Tools!

Pixel Prospector - Lots of good resources.

Engines GameMaker GameSalad Construct2 Unity Unreal Twine
Unreal, Twine, Construct2, and GameSalad all have scripting systems that doesn't require writing code. Playmaker ($95) is a visual scripting plugin for Unity that has been highly recommended to me.

Art paint.net inkscape (vectors) playscii (ascii) blender (3d modelling)
If you're interested in 3D, I also recommend getting the free 3-year student license for Maya. It's an industry standard tool, and only requires that you put in a bogus .edu email address.

Audio bfxr (fx) bosca ceoil (Music) audacity (recording/audio editing)

If you're interested in learning some basic programming, I highly recommend Code Academy, which will teach you some Javascript.

If you need art assets, you can also peep this thread.

 

Lots of forum folks have volunteered to answer questions and help out, feel free to get in touch these folks if you need a hand!

 

Dinosaursssssss - Unity, UE4 blueprint, C#/JS/html5.
Spenny - Unity
clyde - Unity, TyranoBuilder
BigJKO - Photoshop
zerofiftyone - UE4
undermind - Photoshop / vector art
Blambo - GameMaker, general programming
elvaq - Unity / C#
Deadpan - Twine

Looking for Teams
Clyde - Unity, Weird Stuff
Blambo - Art
SuperBiasedMan - Wild Card
Coods - Music / Code
Simbiotik - Art
elvaq - Looking for an artist(s?)
Gwardinen - Is a programmer, looking for art

Or just swing by the Game Development subforum and hang out.

 

Also here's the Idle Banter thread folks have been chattin' in.

[Spenny]

You too can be cool like me and BigJKO and tweet using #WizardJam

[Spenny]

Also you can chat with other jammers wizards on the Idle Thumbs IRC. #idlethumbs on irc.quakenet.org

[Cyborg771]

Oh man, I just heard about this on the podcast. I dunno how much time I'll have to work on this but I'm gonna try.

[Forbin]

I am probably going to do something, do any artists need a programmer?   Also, I can answer general Unity questions if help is needed.

[Problem Machine]

I can answer questions about Flash/AIR/Haxe if anyone's planning on using those. I also might be up for doing 2d art or music for a game if anyone wants some of that.

[Ash_NR]

Keen to try and get something done for this jam. I've got a basic concept already but I feel it is a little derivative. I'm not sure whether to use the jam to make a more complete micro-game, or something that stretches my legs design-wise. Do any jammers have any thoughts on their process for this? 

[Coods]

This picked up speed so fast, I'm really excited!

 

Is anyone interested in maybe doing a GOTY.cx awards section at the end? Not actually a "firstplace,secondplace", but just to showcase 4 or 5 of the best stuff. It looks like there's definitely going to be some incredible stuff coming out. 

[Dinosaursssssss]

  On 4/11/2015 at 7:11 AM, Ash_NR said:

Keen to try and get something done for this jam. I've got a basic concept already but I feel it is a little derivative. I'm not sure whether to use the jam to make a more complete micro-game, or something that stretches my legs design-wise. Do any jammers have any thoughts on their process for this? 

 

For jams, I personally lean towards trying new things over pushing for completeness. That doesn't necessarily preclude working towards a more polished game though; there's also a lot to learn in pushing for completeness, if you've never done that. 

[Ben X]

For anyone who fancies making an old-school adventure game, they might want to try AGS. It's relatively easy if you want to make a basic PnC. (BigJKO, would you agree?)

[Dualhammers]

If anyone needs help with Blender I can assist with that.

[BigJKO]

  On 4/11/2015 at 5:20 PM, Ben X said:

For anyone who fancies making an old-school adventure game, they might want to try AGS. It's relatively easy if you want to make a basic PnC. (BigJKO, would you agree?)

 

Yes! Definitely! I used it for the first time ever for the Point and Click Jam and it was really easy to use, I found.

 

The only thing that bums me about AGS is making executables that are compatible with anything but Windows..

[Ben X]

  On 4/11/2015 at 6:56 PM, Dualhammers said:

If anyone needs help with Blender I can assist with that.

 

You should pop this in the team-building thread also.

[Paralax]

This looks real fun! Might make something small =)

[Akidu]

Ugghh I don't know whether to take a dive or not. I want to be doing music but I also would love to chuck a proper game together. If I could control time i'd do both.

 

I was thinking of doing a sort of dialog/management type game that explores psychology, propaganda and communication. The premise is you are a PR guy for an eccentric dictator and it is your job to convince the oppressed citizens that the leader is making wise decisions. Like papers please a day is sort of a level and each morning you must address a crowd from a high balcony and try keep things under control using dialog/props/bribes/threats. 

If you don't solve the problems during the day theres a chance the crowd may camp out and you will have two problems to deal with the next day. 

 

It worsens as the days go by and the dictator slips into insanity running the country into the ground. Your job increases in difficulty and absurdity until your really being pushed to justify the bizarre new laws being introduced. A brief idea for the kinds of tools you can employ could be logical fallacies often found in politics as well as non dialog options like bribery("diplomatic pouch") and military action. These are limited though and can not be used exclusively IE too much military leads to a revolution. I think at some point crowds turn into mobs which are more volatile and difficult to sway. 

 

 

Id tie it to the thumbs episode "diplomatic pouch". 

 

but argggh indecision. Typing this out hasn't solved anything either so argghh. 

[Patrick R]

  On 4/13/2015 at 1:29 AM, Akidu said:

Ugghh I don't know whether to take a dive or not. I want to be doing music but I also would love to chuck a proper game together. If I could control time i'd do both.

 

I was thinking of doing a sort of dialog/management type game that explores psychology, propaganda and communication. The premise is you are a PR guy for an eccentric dictator and it is your job to convince the oppressed citizens that the leader is making wise decisions. Like papers please a day is sort of a level and each morning you must address a crowd from a high balcony and try keep things under control using dialog/props/bribes/threats. 

 

It worsens as the days go by and the dictator slips into insanity running the country into the ground. Your job increases in difficulty and absurdity until your really being pushed to justify the bizarre new laws being introduced. A brief idea for the kinds of tools you can employ could be logical fallacies often found in politics as well as non dialog options like bribery("diplomatic pouch") and military action. These are limited though and can not be used exclusively IE too much military leads to a revolution. 

 

Id tie it to the thumbs episode "diplomatic pouch". 

 

but argggh indecision. Typing this out hasn't solved anything either so argghh. 

 

Sounds like a game that'd be doable in Twine, at least as a prototype.

[Akidu]

Oh yah thanks for the suggestion, Ill have a gander at twine. I reckon i'd use unity though as I'm pretty comfortable with it. But prototyping it there could be a good idea. 

[Delerat]

  On 4/11/2015 at 2:45 PM, Dinosaursssssss said:

For jams, I personally lean towards trying new things over pushing for completeness. That doesn't necessarily preclude working towards a more polished game though; there's also a lot to learn in pushing for completeness, if you've never done that. 

I normally do the same, more fun to experiment. However, this time I'm going to try to complete something.

[Jake]

I put up a blog post on the Idle Thumbs blog to hype up Wizard Jam. I love this thing, everyone!

Note: If anyone whose work I included in the post would prefer I didn't, I will remove it immediately upon request!

[Twig]

I'm pretty happy my ghost gif made it in 'cause I'm quite proud of it. I made myself laugh way too much last night as I was building up to that moment.

[Zebadiah]

I just found out about this, but it seems too late to join. Will there be others?

[zerofiftyone]

  On 4/17/2015 at 11:35 AM, Zebadiah said:

I just found out about this, but it seems too late to join. Will there be others?

 

It's not too late! There's still a week left to go. That's adequate time to make something cool, even if it's a bit smaller in scope.

I really do hope we can do this again; I've had so much fun this week.

[Synnah]

I definitely want a second Wizard Jam to happen (If only so we can use the name that Jake suggested in episode 113, Shoot That Pizza: Thumbjam)! With any luck I'll be better at making games by then, so I don't spend so much time trying to figure out the basics.

[Badfinger]

I don't think game jam games need any project management, so I am way out of my depth to participate. If you need a team member to tell you what an awesome job you're doing and to continue kicking ass I am here.

[zerofiftyone]

  On 4/17/2015 at 1:50 PM, Badfinger said:

If you need a team member to tell you what an awesome job you're doing and to continue kicking ass I am here.

 

i would like that please