Thursday 28 September 2017

Preparing for the DreamHack Jam

Since all I do is procrastinate and then do game jams I've decided that I would participate in the DreamHack Jam.

For those of you who don't know, DreamHack is an e-sports event where a bunch of amateur and professional gamers alike go to play some video games. It's somewhere in America and consequently there's no way in hell I could ever actually attend it, but I can still participate in the game jam!

GameJolt (the indie game website, I'm sure you know the one) are hosting a game jam specifically for DreamHack. I've been unproductive lately, so this is a great opportunity for me to stop being so lazy and actually get something done. This video should go out on the evening before the jam actually starts, at 5AM GMT on Friday.

So how am I going to prepare this time?

Well, I'm going to make sure I sleep for an appropriate amount of time, I'm going to make sure I eat healthy enough so I don't feel like I'm dead the whole time, etc. The biggest change I'll make from Ludum Dare 39 is that I'll spend a lot more time on the planning phase. In Ludum Dare 39, I spent most of my time actually making something without being sure what it was that I was making.

The fact I was time constrained had gone to my head and something that didn't directly result in an actual game in my hands was for some reason registering as superfluous. This time I'll have to plan a lot more carefully. Besides, I'll have more time. The DreamHack Jam lasts for 72 hours or 3 days, whereas the Ludum Dare Compo only lasts for 48.

Additionally, in the past two Ludum Dares my time has been divided into planning, programming and creating most of the art all on Saturday and then getting burned out on Sunday and just barely managing to create UI and sound.

Hopefully this Jam will make me manage my time a lot better, since as described just prior- my time management leaves a lot to be desired. I'll have 3 days so I definitely can't do what I just described. I'm not going to go with any rigid schedule, but I'll hopefully have a very solid idea of what my game will be before too late on Friday, the first day of the Jam.

This Jam almost fits perfectly with my school schedule, since it runs through the 3 days on which I don't have any lessons- Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Only problem is that I have a lot of schoolwork that I'm forgoing in order to do this, but hey, I'll get to that eventually.

The DreamHack Jam is a great way for me to redeem myself after my particularly underwhelming Ludum Dare 39 submission. Also, it'll be a nice break from my main project. As much as I enjoy the game, the universe and working on it- it can be a pain. Even as I write this I'm absolutely exhausted from schoolwork alone, having done nothing productive to my game in days.

Again, this might not have been the most well written, well presented or well delivered script in the world but I hope you enjoyed. Thanks for watching and stay tuned for more videos about the DreamHack Jam, but as usual probably not since I don't know if there will be another one. Even then, who knows whether I'd want to take part in it, let alone make an entire video on it. These are some verbose closing lines, aren't they?

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