Game Jam Resources

Advice

Know Your Tools

Feel free to download and play around with these pieces of software or explore the links provided before the game jam gets underway. You don't need to be a Unity guru or an expert in Creative Commons licensed materials, that's not what this jam is about. It'll just help to know where to find and the basics of how to use these things. Just don't go designing your game before the jam and then use the three days to polish up your prototype. These links are here to inform, not to help you be a dick.

Focus on the Basics

For this game jam our watchword is: KISSFGSYOHTFD, or Keep It Simple Stupid For God's Sake You Only Have Three Fucking Days.

Seriously though, we don't have a whole lot of time and you're working with people you might not know on a project you probably haven't thought a lot about. You are not going to be making a game, at best you will be making a prototype of a game. In other words, you will have time to make something demonstrating that the basic game mechanics you wish to create actually work. It probably won't look great, it probably won't be very long, it probably won't even work. But it'll be yours, and that's the point.

Embrace Failure

Because make no mistake about it, we're all going to fuck up a lot. Our games are going to be terrible and we'll be embarrassed of them. That's the goal, to make something terrible.

You will feel afraid, you will have no idea what you're doing, you'll feel like you're fucking everything up. All that feeling means is that you are currently participating in the Jam. So roll with it and fuck things up even more!

Game Development Resources

Unity 3D

Unity is pretty much the be-all and end-all of free video game development software. Not only do indie studios use it, but developers like Electronic Arts have been known to use it in their web games. Almost everything you'll need to make a game is here, including support for multiple platforms.

Actual game developers have used this to make games like: The Room, Kentucky Route Zero, Temple Run 2, and The Guns of Icarus Online

Flash

Flash! It's not just to annoy you with terrible web design and make it impossible to watch movies on your iPhone. It's also very handy in making simple and not so simple games. Several popular games like Super Meat Boy got their start as flash games.

Actual game developers have used this to make games like: Machinarium and Super Hexagon

Unreal Development Kit

Hey you know that game you like? Like... literally almost any game? Yeah, it was probably developed using the Unreal Engine. The defacto game engine for several large AAA developers, Unreal is free to download and try out.

Actual game developers have used this to make goddamn near everything.

XNA Game Studio

Thinking of developing exclusively for Windows? Microsoft has an app for that. Wait...

Microsoft XNA Game Studio allows you to use Visual Studio to create games for the PC, Xbox 360, and Windows Phones. You know, if anyone actually has one of those.

Actual game developers have used this to make games like: Magicka, Terraria, and Dust: An Elysian Tale

Stencyl

Stencyl is a sexy piece of software that lets you develop iOS and Flash games. It has a sleek, snap-together functionality that skips past all that messy coding and lets you make a game like you're making a scene out of Lego.

Actual game developers have used this to make games like: Kreayshawn Goes to Japan, Traitor, and Gyossait

Torque

Torque comes in two versions. Torque 3D, which much like Unity allows you to create a variety of 3D style games, and even comes with a premade game to use as a tutorial. Torque 2D is... uhm, the same. Except for 2D style games. Pretty cut and dry, really.

Actual game developers have used this to make games like: Penny Arcade: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episodes One & Two, and Swarm.

Twine

Twine is a tool that helps you easily create a text adventure game. There's even an easy step-by-step tutorial.

Game Maker

GameMaker is well... software that lets you make games. It's got an easy to use drag and drop interface, and is available for both Windows and Mac. There's also a lite version that's free to download.

Actual game developers have used this tie make games like: Barkley: Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Immortal Defence, and Dustforce.

Software Version Control

Version Control is a way of keeping control of different changes you make to the various files that make up your game. This way, if you make a change to something that breaks your already quite broken game even further, you can revert to an older version and start over before that change.

It's like making multiple save files of your game, each one incorporating more recent changes than the last.

A private Subversion server will be available on site, just ensure you have a client installed & a login will be given to you at the start of the Jam.

Recommended Clients

PC - TortoiseSVN | Mac - Xcode or SourceTree | Linux - SVN

Git is another of the most popular version control systems, but it has a bit of a learning curve; The main advantage to using it at the jam is that it'll be hosted on GitHub and available as open source.

Just sign up for a free account on GitHub & send your username to Andrew, either in advance or at the jam itself.

Recommended Clients

PC - GitHub | Mac - GitHub | Linux - Git

As a participant, you're welcome to use whatever you want for version control; We just recommend that you use something. Anything. Please?

Just be aware that you're on your own for support during the jam if you're using something other than Git/SVN.

Sound & Music Resources

BFXR - Free web-based or downloadable Sound FX Generator
FlashKit Sound FX - An ever-growing list of shareware and freeware SoundFX for download.
Free Music Archive - Like the name says...
The FreeSound Project - A collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds.
Open Music Archive - A project to source, digitise and distribute out-of-copyright sound recordings.
Public Domain Sounds - Another free sound library.

Art Resources

Glitch Encyclopedia - Stacks of CC-licensed art from recently deceased web game Glitch; Look under Items or Inhabitants.
Tiled Map Editor - A general purpose tile map editor.
HasGraphics - Free graphics for indie game developers
Open Game Art - Free, legal art for open source game projects.
Google 3D Warehouse - 3D models for use in Google SketchUp.
SpriteLib GPL - Static and animated sprites, free for any use.
Graphic River - Cheap stock graphic assets
TileStudio - A 2D level editor, sprite editor, & map editor.
iTileMaps - Another tile map creation tool.
The Official Blender Model Repository - Free Blender resources.

Miscellaneous

Making Your First Videogame - A guide with some helpful advice and links for making your first game.
The Ultimate Indie Game Developer Resource List - Like it says on the tin.
The GDC Vault - An archive of GDC talks & presentations.
Creating Paper Prototypes for Digital Games - Solid resource on paper prototyping & why it's valuable for digital games.
Bad Game Design - A giant list of awful game design and how to avoid it.
Less Talk More Rock - On the importance of prototyping first & planning later. Also gaming as a language.