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Did you like the Jam?
Posted by PoV (twitter: @mikekasprzak)
August 25th, 2010 8:01 pm
Hey everybody,
Judging is in full force now, and hopefully you’ve been playing competition games (nudge nudge wink wink). Now that we’ve all had a couple days to rest, it’s time for the question:
Did you like the new Ludum Dare (Competition AND Jam)?
Share your thoughts in the comments.
I had to ask about what it was like beforehand to make sure I had the right idea, but I do like this method compared to the previous alternative, though I only have this one to go by. If you happen to miss the competition deadline, you still can participate by finishing up in time for the jam. From what I saw and experienced, this didn’t detract much from the seriousness of the competition either.
I just did the compo, and this LD didn’t seem very different from other LDs I’ve done (which is no bad thing). I do really like that the jam is there to make LD even more inclusive.
Yeah I liked knowing the jam was there as an option either planned from the beginning or as a competition parachute in case my entry goes horribly awry! I did the competition though but I like the concept of having both.
I like the fact that the jam allows people to participate in Ludum Dare without being restricted to specific types of projects. I saw some really neat collaborative projects come out of the jam. If the intent was to restrict the size of the stricter Ludum Dare competition, then we should probably tweak the rules a bit. The number of entries in the competition is still so high that it’s daunting to vote on all of them! But if the intent is just to open up Ludum Dare to a wider group of participants, then this was definitely a success. Either way it seems like this was a good experiment, and I’m interested in seeing where Ludum Dare goes from here.
Oh, I should also mention that I really like the requirement that competition participants release their source code. I think it’s a positive addition.
Feature request: it would be nice if there was a way to view the jam submissions as their own list. I’m sure the jam participants would like some attention for their creations. If there is a way to view them, I can’t find it. Thanks!
Yeah, it can be hard to find. There’s a link at the top of the preview page.
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-18/?action=preview&etype=gamejam
I think that’ll be part of the TODO list for December’s LD: Improve the website user interface.
Still, a list like the “Rate Entries” list would be nice, so you can see which entries you’ve already commented on and how many comments each entry has.
Perhaps also an option like “Show all entries” for competition + jam together.
I didn’t enter myself this time, but I noticed that several people who entered the compo also wanted to submit unrelated jam games, but couldn’t because the system limits to one submission per account. Some ended up making “fake” accounts to submit the extra games. Maybe consider removing the game submission limit for jam games, or at least separate the compo and jam limits.
Well, it was my first LD and I liked it very much.
The jam however, made some people give up too easily on the deadline (imho), which is sad.
It’s nothing bad about the jam, it’s just about people taking the easy way out.
I love the idea of the Jam. Sadly I could not attend this weekend due to pre-existing commitments.
But many LDs I’m close but not quite there yet. The idea of having the jam to fall back on is very comforting. Also certain stuff I sometimes want to use can’t release the source.
So yeah the Jam is a great idea and I don’t think it damaged the competition. Judging from the entries.
I’m happy with the Jam. I usually have other things to do during the weekend and would normally end up with a barely playable game, this time I could actually finish something.
I would like to have the same rating possibilities (1-5) stars for the jam entries. but without taken them into the competition. Just to quickly determine if the sound, the art or the fun needs a makeover/imporvement.
This was my first time having a go at LD — been meaning to for a while — so while I cannot compare my experience with previous LDs, I really like this format. I started my entry really late (Sunday morning), but despite this I had a playable game before the compo deadline ended. Sadly I discovered a bug during the final round of testing and while I was chasing it around in a panic I missed the deadline. I was disappointed to miss the compo, but knowing that I could still contribute via the Jam inspired me to keep working, so I got some sleep, fixed the bug in the morning, and submitted it to the Jam just before leaving for work. I don’t know if I would have polished it up and posted it online otherwise.
I think the Jam offers more opportunities for devs to contribute games, whether they just need more time to polish/bugfix, or they want to collaborate, or they don’t want to release source.
Overall the jam was a huge success.
I prefer to jam for so many reasons: I find the compo too stressful, I don’t like to rush, and I don’t like to post source code. Mostly I’m just not competitive and just want to have fun making a game so the jam was perfect. I think in the future we’ll get more teams this way, and teamwork is a good thing.
Two suggestions to improve it:
1. I’d like to see the normal 1 to 5 rating system used in the jam, same as the compo entries. The results don’t need to count for anything, but they are an extremely valuable metric to assess what was good and what needs work on your game and we really missed out in that sense.
2. Another great idea for future LD compos and JAMS would be to have a listing of web-only (non-download) games, as I generally do not like to run executables on my work computer – I’m sure many people like me only played the web games so they might as well be in their own separate listing: the “safe” games.
I’m glad I participated – the jam was definitely a great addition to LD.
I thought the Jam was an awesome addition. In the past I’ve seen a few discouraged posts at the beginning (i.e. people wanted to do teams, or not loving the theme, or with big events taking up most of the weekend) and near the end (people panic that they won’t finish, or giving up). Now, all of these were replaced with “I’ll just do the jam instead!”.
For me personally it was a lifesaver. A last-minute release build only bug prevented me from finishing on time, but I still got to post my game to the Jam. I would have been much more upset if I couldn’t post it at all.
It did seem to take a little of the pressure off, and perhaps I would have tested my release build earlier if the Jam wasn’t there, but overall it was a huge win to have the Jam available. Great idea.
When the main compo came to an end and I didn’t have my entry anywhere near ready, I went to sleep and set out to enter the game in the jam instead.
And I’m glad I had the time and the new deadline! I liked how my game turned out for the most part, and I just needed that extra day.
Since no one rates Jam entries, though, it feels like the Jam entries are just kind of…there. I agree with the sentiment above about having a separate means-nothing ratings for Jam entries, if only to get more feedback and attention to me…I mean, the Jam entries. B-)
It’s nice there is a Jam option but really I don’t think it would have helped me much if I had used it. After 48 hours, I can’t really continue anyway.
Also, I don’t really get that some people want the addition of voting for jam entries. The normal LD48 voting is already a ‘for nothing’ vote. What would be the difference? If there is an evaluation then there would be jam “winners” and it’s just like the compo.
If not voting for Jam entries, then some other way to recognize those games would be good. As it is, there’s a list of games submitted, and since everyone is voting for the main compo entries, the jam entries are by and large ignored.
I think the jam is a good addition. People like to polish up their game a little (or finish an incomplete game), get outside art help, etc., and make a follow-up post on the blog anyway. The jam just formalizes that process a little more, and provides a more cohesive place to showcase things.
The one thing I would suggest is that the jam go for an extra week, not just an extra day (i.e., through the end of the next Sunday). One more day doesn’t allow much more to be done (especially if one is burned out from the prior 48 hours), and Monday isn’t a great day for most people to get much done. Since the jam is separate from the compo, has no hard rules, and isn’t judged anyway, the extra week wouldn’t be unfair to the compo entries in any way.
Amazing idea: the jam should be one week long!
You’re right about Monday. I realized only after the Jam that I had the ability to work that extra day because I quit the day job months ago. Others might feel compelled to go to work on Monday.
This was my first LD, and I chose to participate in the Jam because I like to work with other people. Working alone isn’t for me when it comes to game development. The Jam was really fun, but it did feel a little anti-climactic to finish up on our game only to then just have it sit there. Sure, we got a few comments, but overall it was a bit underwhelming. I think it would be a lot of fun if there could be a Jam-like event that was competitive. I would definitely participate in that.
My first LD too. I didn’t finish on time, but I finish my game.
I think this kind of ‘flexibility’ is good to encourage people to finish their games under the LD.
Maybe my competitive muscle isn’t awake now, but I think that the true spirit is to have fun while making a game, compo award’s or jam recognitions doesn’t matters too much; if you care about it, ends quicker.
I took part in the Jam as my first LD, with my friend. We made the game March of the Rorgers and we had a great time, really enjoyed it, and formed the 2-man team that we know as ‘Surprised Man’ as a result.
Just one thing, really… I know the rules are very relaxed for the Jam as compared to the competition and so it’s not really conducive to that sort of definitive, formal judging process. But it would be great if there was some way to give the Jam entries some sort of informal recognition, since I worry that there are some great entries in there that just aren’t getting the attention they deserve. Having some way that people can recognise the jam entries beyond just posting comments on their entry page would be great, whether it be a toned-down rating system or a more informal sort of way of giving specific awards
This was my first LD too
Having the option to submit for the jam when I ran behind on the compo was welcome. It allowed me (being new to this) to take a step back, enlist help and wrap the game. I think it would be interesting to run a competitive 72-hour jam sometime (separate from the 48 one man compo – more LD all around).
yes. :B
The jam was FUN as heck, but not very many people played the jam entries. My biggest disappointment was that I only got comments from 3 people. I’m still glad I joined. I will definitely join a JAM again.
I tracked my stats (and I’ll admit my game sucked, so these stats are more representative of my weak skills): of the 150 people that hit the page, only about 40 started a game, of which 17 finished all three lives and submitted a high score.
Those that actually did play, however, played for an average of almost 5 minutes, which is pretty good, and the average framerate was a whopping 135.8fps, which is fan freaking tastic.
You can see all the stats here.
I just wish I’d had a week to polish it and add more levels! I had to work on Monday so the extra day was really only an extra couple hours after dinner. Overall, a fun learning experience, and likely my very last hurrah with my old reliable 3d game engine.
Anything higher than the screen refresh rate is just wasted power and stuff… I wanted to try your game, but I don’t want to install the shockwave plugin. Maybe I should, maybe there’s no problem with it and it won’t make Firefox crash or eat all my hard drive space, but I don’t know, and almost nothing needs shockwave, so I’ll pass. Or maybe I’ll install it… Who knows. (Does it even work under Linux?)
Besides that, yeah, no-one played my Jam game, which is okay because it’s not a fun game and I don’t need people telling me that, but still, it’s a bit disappointing. Maybe once the voting is over there’ll be a bit of movement towards the Jam entries.
You don’t need shockwave to run the windows app, and it isn’t an installer, it is a simple standalone exe that you can just run, no installs required! It is a “polite” app, meaning it can run standalone in a read-only portable environment with no permissions, it never touches the registry or writes files, etc.
That should hopefully alleviate all plugin issues. =)
Video, online and mac version: PuzzaBOMB
Windows exe: puzzabomb_windows.zip
He kind of implied that he was using Linux, though. Does your game work under Linux?
Ah well, http://get.adobe.com/shockwave/otherversions/ says there’s no shockwave for Linux.
I tried the Windows exe under Wine, but since this isn’t the place for comments on your game, I’ll post something on its page.