I think the title really says it all, but I guess I owe a more detailed explanation. Today at 10am we started our game jam in collaboration with the University of Paderborn’s Game Lab. Together, the 55 or so of us will be jamming until Sunday evening. And what a slam it’s been already! While I have done Ludum Dare before, that was always from the comfort of my home with a few friends. Here we have a full lab of talented students from a variety of areas of study.
Lucky for us, they really know how to jam here! With impressive efficiency, everyone was sorted into a team based on their skills and interests. We were first divided into pairs to come up with ideas. Next, groups of six were formed out of three pairs. Each of these teams decided on an idea to pitch to the whole lab. Once all of these ideas were pitched, everyone voted to narrow down the selection. Finally, teams were formed around winning ideas, with care to allocate students who excel at art/design/coding/sound in the right places.
Something I found very refreshing was the sheer number of people who didn’t just code. There was an especially large group of sound people, and even quite a few who designed primarily (I’m used to design on small teams being a shared responsibility). I ended up on a team with a very ambitious idea that doesn’t really fit with the games I usually play or make, hoping to learn something new. It might have been a bit more than I bargained for, but I’m having fun implementing UI, something we almost didn’t realize the importance of at first.
Most of the day was spent inside, so I hope you’ll enjoy a page from my notebook:
