This game jam was a 24 hour event in which you had to deliver a playable product under certain categories each with different requirements. One member of the team is going to china soon, and because I was the only new member of the team it seamed that they already had a concept in mind; a platform game that aims to teach Chinese. This was certainly not easy as it is a complicated language, but we were determined to not include any English at all. Just like we felt when we where thinking on how to target this subject, we decided to go for a foreign little girl who gets lost in the streets of China. She doesn't understand the language or characters so her imagination is the only thing that will get her around.
An so we arrived on Saturday morning having a small reception followed by the introduction of the different categories. I was surprised of the amount of people that where there! more than 35 teams where just in the same building from 3 to 6 members each, and also this jam was running along at the same time at the Abertay University in Dundee, Scotland. It was pretty scary to hear that most teams are quite recurrent to this kind of events and that some previous winners were among the teams.
The official jam started at 11 am finishing at 11 am on Sunday. It felt pretty hardcore, but at the same time I was impressed of how well organized it was; there was more food that you could eat, tea and coffee at all times and even resting areas for those who needed a power nap. At first I didn't know what to expect as this was my first event, so I brought with me heavy clothing, sleeping bag and provisional snacks; my idea was of a big cold warehouse. Lovely surprise to find that Pinewood Studios provided us with a lovely place to work! (it was like a big mansion!)
Nisha Valand, who organised the whole event was there the whole time and incredibly supportive by having everything we needed and cheering people up.
After finishing the character (say it was finished, but it had so much to be polished!) I went to create as many assets as possible. Some of them where important part of the game play, so the had to have a small animation, some others where just used as platforms.
It certainly was a whole different experience to see how much you can do in such a short period of time. The game had some complicated mechanics as it was thought to be used on touch devices, such as drawing chinese characters on the screen on the right order to pass the level. It was far from finishing, but we managed to get something playable for the three minute demostration at the end.
Seeing the work of everyone else made me realised many things about where I was standing and what I need to achieve. Certainly something to look in the future and improve in time. There where many great games out there, certainly some that might as well be already a game on it's own. It was probably the lack of sleep that put me in a negative mood by thinking that we weren't cut out for any nominations, but oh! suprice to hear the team's name being awarded for the Most Awesome Game!
Couldn't believe it! it was awkward to stand in front of people and get a picture and stuff. To this point I can't even remember what we won, but it was sure enough to know that our efforts where so worth it! (a day of motion capture ...somewhere...or something like that).
We came back home straight away and by the time I went to bed it was nearly 40 hours without sleep...certainly not something I would to every weekend, but will definitely make sure to go at least once a year! :D
The coders wanted to tweak the game a bit more so hopefully I'll have a web version to post soon ;)
Thanks Nellyvision for the oportunity!!!
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