This post was published 1 year 3 months 18 days ago and as such probably does not reflect my current opinions, knowledge or ability.
The biggest Global Game Jam ever took place over the weekend, and as with last year I headed to the Scottish Game Jam venue in Glasgow to take part. With almost 100 developers attending, this was one of the largest sites in the world.
Teaming up with Andrew Glass (part of my team when developing Panda Dragoon last year) along with artist Craig Mooney and designer Daniel Cleaton (two fellow Abertay grads who I hadn’t worked with before), we had 48 hours to develop a game on the theme of “extinction”. Our idea of choice was Chinthrilla, a fast-paced platformer featuring a jealous Chinchilla set on causing the extinction of tortoises everywhere who must race against intergalactic conversationalists trying to save them while dodging the hammer-head land shark.
Overall we created a fairly complete game (given the timespan) with relatively few difficulties compared to the pipeline and source control issues we worked through last year, with an astounding amount of textured 3D artwork given that it was created by a single artist. However, the gameplay style we attempted was far from ground-breaking and we could definitely have had a deeper look at the theme. I think when faced with 48 hours, especially during an event which only takes place annually, it’s tempting to choose a project you’re confident can work. Next year though I’d like to try something more experimental, even if it doesn’t result in something playable.
This years event involved fantastic feedback from mentors for improving the game, great coverage of the entire event from Square Go, and free pizza provided by sponsor Nokia. The highlight for me though was seeing all of the games at the end of the event, and in particular the entire audience screaming at a dying polar bear to go on and keep swimming. It was a great weekend and I look forward to the next.
All Scottish Game Jam games on the GGJ site
Summary from Square Go
My Flickr Stream
Video of Chinthrilla
Chinthrilla on the GGJ site, where you can download it or play online
Chinthrilla on the SGJ site
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by JonathanSykes, Nnanna Kama and ScottishGameJam, Hazel Mckendrick. Hazel Mckendrick said: Brief blog post about #ggj2011 and #sgj2011 up on my site: http://hazelmckendrick.com/journal/global-game-jam-2011 [...]
Sounds like a really great time, and the game looks amazing for 48 hours worth of time (I guess not even that much as there must have been time spent on first coming up with the concept, right?
Good work all of you
Thanks, the overall quality of all the games increased dramatically from last year. It took some time to come up with a concept at the start, but on top of the preparing and recording the upload for the globalgamejam site and demoing the game took a couple of hours as well. Really though we were so tired that I’m not sure how much extra progress a few hours would have let us make; probably not much.
One can really pick up a whole lot of new skills in a year, that’s for sure.
I only found out today that there was actually two Jams held here in Gothenburg (one at a highschool and one at my old university).
Not that I’m creative or have ever hacked together anything more than the most basic of games, but I think I’ll keep my eyes out for next years Jam, and see I cannot attend, or at least check it out. It does sound like a rather fun experience.
Again, congratulations
Yeah twas a great event, I have to say it was my favorite year so far.
Massive thrill seeing everyone’s work, I got such an inspiration buzz last weekend.
Cant wait till next year!
Dave