WIZARD JAM 2016 // Welcome Thread

[zerofiftyone]

 

 

Hello everyone! There will be another Wizard jam in May. If you're new to the forums, Wizard Jam is the community-run game jam we host twice a year. It's not a competitive jam; the main emphasis is to encourage people to try to try something new, or to try gamedev for the first time. Here are the details:

 

Date: May 7th - 22nd 2016

 

Theme: Choose an episode title from the Idle Thumbs podcast (or from any podcast on the network!) and use it as your theme prompt. Use this site to get a randomly selected title: http://randomthumbs.danjohnmoran.com/ (Thanks Broxxar, Panzorfork & matt.ishii)

 

Rules: There are no rules!

 

Diversifiers:

The diversifiers are an optional challenge for the jam. Choose as many (or as few) as you like and incorporate them into your game.

Uniquely Systemic - Procedurally generate something in your game that’s not commonly procedural. A character’s personality, the game’s secret language, a control scheme, the procedurally generated sky's the limit.

Crowd-sourced - Make a game using input from other people. Let the community decide on creative decisions, or take on lots of mini-contributions which will be used in the game (e.g. sound recordings or photos).

 

Shallow Copy - Choose a genre/style to be inspired by, but specifically don’t use certain mechanics or other elements common to it.

 

Designer Notes - Include a director’s commentary in your game.

 

Tone Control - The audio in your game is reactive and directly manipulated by the player’s inputs and actions.

 

Uncle Who Works at Nintendo - Your game has a bizarre cheat code or secret that no-one will believe is real, but it definitely is; my uncle who works at Nintendo told me about it.

 

Ombudsman - During the jam, produce and distribute a newsletter tangentially related to your game.

 

Focused Palette - Make a game using as few colours as possible.

 

Dead to Language - Incorporate words or language as a core mechanic in your game.

 

 

Use this subforum to make development log threads, recruit folks, and chat about development related stuff! There's also the game development subforum and the #wizardjam slack channel. 

 

HERE'S THE PAGE WHERE YOU CAN SUBMIT YOUR GAME : It's An Itchio

 

 

Browse Past Wizard Jams:

 

Wizard Jam (Apr 2015)

Subforum Link

Itch.io Link

 

Winter Wizard Jam (Nov/Dec 2015)

Subforum Link

Itch.io Link

[Lokno]

Let's do this thing! 

[Dinosaursssssss]

Wizard

[Jake]

Jam

[zerofiftyone]

2016!

[chummer]

was checking out just this past year's episode titles and there are some A+ options.

 

Buble Bloodborne Beef, Momazon Prime, and Idle Thumbs Demo Disk Q1 2016 top my list.

[RubixsQube]

THAT VIDEO IS REAL GOOD

 

 

I'm in! Now I need to spend some time in the next few weeks getting some inspiration.

[z_bill]

21 Year Old Weird House is promising!

Edit: That's "Twenty Year Old Weird House." Still promising!

[Reyturner]

I did the random title a couple of times and it was a theme that I was thinking about doing anyways!

Now to figure out Unity!!!

[Synnah]

Wizard Dash Jam!

I'm down. Going to have a look through episode titles to see if I can find something I want to make more than Dot Gobbler, which I've been thinking about making since the first Wizard Jam.

[Ben X]

Buble Bloodborne Beef

 

Eh, it's been done...

[tberton]

I wrote up a design idea for Always Support the Danger Layer last year. Maybe I'll make it!

[Dinosaursssssss]

To add a bit to what ZeroFiftyOne said, a major goal of the Wiz Jam has always been to create a really positive environment for new/inexperienced games makers, so please don't be discouraged if you've never made anything before, and if you ever need help or just want people to bounce ideas off, drop by the gamedev slack channel/forum and come hang with us! We have a fun mix of new folks, professional developers, and everything in between kicking around and we're all happy to help out or just chit chat.

[Spenny]

Wooooohooooo jam time!

[Ben X]

Thanks for organising, 051! Can I suggest you look at the feedback thread from the previous jam? The main points brought up were: end time and time zone for the Jam, a post-Jam structure for playing/feedback, and encouragement in the team-building thread for people to read all the posts and not be embarrassed to make a move.

[Coods]

If anyone would like some intro screen music or something, I made this chiptune version of the Wizard melody during the Winter Jam last year.

[Ben X]

I think Patrick has some music he made that people can use as well. Perhaps there should be a Free Assets thread?

[zerofiftyone]

Thanks for organising, 051! Can I suggest you look at the feedback thread from the previous jam? The main points brought up were: end time and time zone for the Jam, a post-Jam structure for playing/feedback, and encouragement in the team-building thread for people to read all the posts and not be embarrassed to make a move.

 

Yep! I remember there were some good points made in that thread. Thanks for the reminder.

[clyde]

I'm totally not going to be embarassed when I make a move in the team-building thread.

[Vasari]

Woohoo! Third time's a charm, I'm actually going to make something for this one!

[toblix]

This is a cool jam!

[Synnah]

'The Bear's Black Heart' is such a strong episode title from the past year. I also really like 'Ms. Petman', 'Signature Moves' and 'Mesmerized, Process and Anxiety'. Though I have no idea what I'd make for the last one.

[atte]

That video was a great idea and really well done! It's kind of silly how much fun it (still) is to stare at the Thumbs episode list and think of different game ideas and interpretations.

[zerofiftyone]

That video was a great idea and really well done! It's kind of silly how much fun it (still) is to stare at the Thumbs episode list and think of different game ideas and interpretations.

 

Hah, yeah I do the same. Every week when a new episode comes out I look at the title and think about what game could be made from it.

[clyde]

I've already made Sir Jumps-A-Lot and Brick-Break'N Breckon. I'm just waiting for the inevitablity of those being the names of episodes.