#ggj17

Before GGJ I teamed up with my husband David, and my friend Madd who I run Women Studying Games with. Madd is also a Swinburne student, so having their perspective and different background was awesome. I was able to find not one but two wonderful programmers to work with my team, one even currently working in the industry (which was a bit scary!).

After some brain storming we came up with the idea of a game that greets people by saying hello and waving. Yup, we really tied the theme in there nicely.

What Went Right

The team got along really well, and there was no arguing over themes or the idea. We all had a similar vision to what the game should be, and what the tone should be like. The level layout, and art looked fantastic. 

What Went Wrong

I think a combination of not being around people much since finishing school for the year, combined with working with new people shocked me into temporarily losing my confidence. The deadlines that I had discussed with the team and implemented went out the window as soon as I needed to enforce them. I found myself not being able to communicate my concerns with the team because I was scared of being wrong. This contributed to the game being very out of scope - the waving animation the player character was supposed to do didn’t even get implemented, hah! We also did no testing at all and boy, did it show. The game made sense to the team, but not to many other people. 

What I learned

After talking to people and playing their games, I realised that it’s totally fine to have a small game. It doesn’t matter if it has one simple mechanic! A Game Jam is a learning experience, I don’t believe it’s meant to be something where you have to produce an immaculate piece of art.

I also learned that I can’t sleep on the floor anymore. Even with pillows and a camping mat. I also learned that I can’t survive on two hours sleep anymore. That really affected my performance because I was tired and my back was killing me the entire time, oops!