this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2023
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Hello and welcome!
You've had some good tips there already from @Walop@sopuli.xyz but I definitely want to emphasise the "have fun" part! Pace yourself, ask for help when you need it, and if you start to feel like you're burning out and losing the fun please take a break.
If you get something submitted by the end, great, but if you overrun a little bit you should still be proud of what you made.
The biggest advice I have, which you've probably heard before but it bears repeating, is to make something small. When you think you've whittled down your idea to the simplest it could possibly be? Simplify it some more. Remember if there's time left at the end of the jam you can always add more stuff, but overscoping from the start will stop you from finishing anything at all.
And on that note! Get a victory condition and game ending in as soon as possible. That way you've got a full start-to-end experience that could technically be submitted and would work, even if something unexpectedly takes you away from the jam.
You didn't say which engine or anything you're planning to use but on a jam-specific note, in their Discord you can ping mentors in each engine with e.g. @unity or @godot if your fellow jammers aren't able to answer something you're stuck on. I'm in there too (same username as here), technically only a Unity mentor but I've been learning Godot so will be keeping an eye on questions in that too.
Oh and p.s. we'd love to see what you make! You can update here, or I'll be starting off a weekly "what are you working on?" thread so keep an eye on that too ๐
And p.p.s please use version control.
Yes, the last one. Many people think version control is required only when collaborating and use it badly when mandated. Committing often with sensible messages will save so much time when figuring out why and when something broke and how to fix it so something else won't break.
It's saved me more times than I can even count, but somehow I keep finding myself begging quite experienced devs to use it. Seems weirdly specific to game devs, I have no idea what that's all about!
@TeaHands @Walop
The last time I had a game jam the 2nd dev (I was the main) assured me he is proficient in using git do I can rely on him to push to his branch to merge the day before.
He ruined the HEAD history and disappeared with 6 hrs remaining that coulda gone into polishing.
: :aaaa:
Oh good lord ๐คฆโโ๏ธ