Game Jam 2015

Nothing sounds more thrilling than a weekend of sleep deprivation, sugary drinks and savory snacks. The week leading up to the jam I was still in xmas mode, I felt extremely lazy and hardly motivated to do anything. To be honest there was a part of me that wanted to miss this one, I think it was the idea of letting the team down that led me to doing it.

Now looking back on that I don't know what the hell I was thinking, the experience of starting with a blank piece of paper and an empty Unity Scene with a 48 hr timer was amazing. My team consisted of first year students, like myself, and a friend of mine who owns his own animation business. We had to use anything and everything we had learned since September to try and make a game worth playing and I think/hope we succeeded.

On the same day the jam started we had Diego ,(Think that's how his name is spelt) a Post-Graduate from UCS who now works for Ubisoft Milan give a talk about the differences of AAA companies and Indie. He also gave us an insight on the kind of attributes and expectations companies like Ubisoft have. A few things I took away from this talk was:

• Game Design (AAA or Indie) can be stressful.
• You must be decisive but also be logical with your decisions.
• Must have impeccable communication skills.
• Have to learn from your mistakes quickly.
• You must be able to take responsibility.

I don't think Diego could have come at a better time, a few hours later we were sitting down trying to think of ideas for our game. The next 48 hours seemed like a crash course for all the points above, except on a much smaller scale. Although these points can look very negative and not very appealing, the pros far out weigh the cons. Watching people play something you have had a part in creating is just awesome.

http://globalgamejam.org/2015/games/unlucky-chucky