A week after landing in Las Vegas for a little longer stay I had a chance to participate in Las Vegas Summer Game Jam 2018. I wasn’t expecting much from it as I was entirely new in a city, but it was a great chance to meet new people!
Game jam took place on the weekend 25-26 August 2018 at Work In Progress.
In addition to a game jam, there was a part for newcomers to take workshops on game making in a lot of interesting subjects. But I came there to make games… ?
Before the announcement of the theme for jam, there was time to meet some people and form a team. Luckily, I wasn’t the only one new in that place so finding other people without a group wasn’t a problem and quickly after a small talk we form a 6-people strong team.
After announcement or lack of any specific theme, we’ve started brainstorming with the whiteboard and sticky notes. With a stream of ideas, we had to filter them, and we choose to go with “trains and portals”.
The first day we spend on discussing and implementing gameplay and creating levels. But as you can see in a picture, there was a long way to finish.
So on the second day, we had to push hard to make it much, much better. Using a few tips and tricks, some free assets from Kenney.nl and Asset Store we manage to make it look much better. Result surprised even us, and we also finished before time ran out.
At the end of the event, there was time for the presentation of created games. Like all other teams, we also have to present our game “Trains on Rails”. It wasn’t the most exciting presentation ever so didn’t think about getting the place on a podium, but we hopped at least for honorable mention. ?
But as organizer goes through places, we lost our hope entirely when he was in the second position. We haven’t been called until that time, so there was no reason to believe.
BUUUUUUT… How surprised we were as we were called to get the first place!
The lesson that I learned that day was to never doubt in your skills, and always be confident in your work! Luckily this time it worked for us, next time it could be you! ?