This is beginning to sound like AA..
"Hi, my name is _ and I make videogames.."

All things considered, one of the better addictions in the world

Maybe...  It is not so good when you are up at 3am 'improving' your games and wondering if your wife will forgive you for it...

All that control is also good for inspiring megalomania.

I had a great time too, but I don't know how some of you people did 4 days straight.  I only made it to two days (one of those a half-day) and I felt exhausted afterwards.

One thing I did learn is how little I can do in three hours.  I have a better idea of what skills I need to sharpen up for next time and what kind of scale to aim for...

I'm trying to get hold of all the jammers on twitter at the moment

I am @AnthonyHJ and that's where I post most often, but I also keep @Freyas8 for my more involved projects.  Most things on the Freya's Aett feed are cross-posted to my personal feed anyway though.  I also have another Twitter account, but I barely use it these days...

My game from last night is up at http://www.freyas8.co.uk/2player1keyboard/ if anyone wants a look.  I think it needs some instructions, but it should make sense if you experiment.

It's still got some bugs...

Edit: (Sunday night)

My Egypt/regression/it-came-from-the-deep game is half-ready, but the assets I used from the flash-drive apparently include Final Fantasy VI backgrounds, so I might have to make / source my own art assets before I upload it...

I had great fun yesterday, but I think I may need to sit today out; my wife was up all night throwing up, so I'll be looking after my daughter.  Really sorry about this, but I should be back tomorrow (Sunday).

My game from last night is now up at http://www.freyas8.co.uk/2player1keyboard/ if anyone wants a look.  I think it needs some instructions, but it should make sense if you experiment.

Also, if someone can get me a joypad, that would be helpful.

Okay, I have packed my trusty Logitech Wingman Precision.  It's no Xbox 360 controller, but it should be better than nothing. 

I'm going to have some lunch and set out for Cambridge after eating.  I'm looking to be there between four and six.  I.e. early, but not so early that I can't get the cheap rate on parking at the station.  Before that though, some questions...

How late do people usually stay?  I assume midnight, but how awful would it look if I were to sneak out at about 10pm so I can see my wife and daughter before they head off to bed?

How warm is CB2?  Should I bring a jumper and thermal underwear or would it be best to dress light so that I am not cluttering up the workspace when I have to take it all off?

Further to my earlier post, I'll be the one dressed like a cold-war spy in a fedora, overcoat and sunglasses.  I have also let my beard fill out a bit from its earlier neat goatee, so expect an all-over short beard instead.

See you all tomorrow...

I've been pretty ill most of this week, and was starting to doubt if I'd be well in time for it, but it seems I will.

Me too.  I have had a stinking cold that only eased off this morning.  I was terrified that I would have to choose between dropping out and being Patient Zero...

Don't worry, I'm always wary about self proclaimed great writers. The proof is in the pudding, so I'll look forward to seeing what you cook! :D

We'll just have to see.  Personally, as long as I don't make a complete fool of myself, I think I will count it as a success. 

Actually, the sign of a good games-writer is simply that they take criticism well.  It's all well and good to have aspirations, but the game's design always comes first and writing is only one part of making the design a reality. 

Hey, I never said I was "a great narrative designer", just that I'd like to think I was.

Ren'Py seems like a very nice way of working for me.  I have been messing about with it and even without art, I have got some quite workable prototypes done.  I'd still like an artist, but I was amazed at how much I got done straight out of the (virtual) box.

I'll probably end up working with PHP/MySql a bit, just because it is my happy place, but OGRE can wait until I get home and have some patience; I have not really used C++ seriously in years, so I'd probably take most of the weekend just tracking down bugs in my code and working out where I put the compiler.

Personally I would highly recommend playing with some of the easy dev tools that have been discussed here. I'm a terrible coder but can makes games with Game Maker, Construct, Ren'Py, Unity or Stencyl. You've still got a few days to get some experience with them.

Well, I am looking into PyGame, but half of those frameworks are not so good with Linux.  I've applied to beta-test Stencyl, but I'll never get any practice with it before the jam.

At a game jam if you're just offering to design or write games you might end up being a bit of a 3rd wheel, because when you're making a game in 3 hours or whatever you don't usually have time to wait for someone else to design/write stuff for you. You just want to get going.

I have been working on a game in Ren'Py and I develop for Facebook apps using XAMPP five days a week.  I might suffer a little without access to the online PHP help, but I am not quite the helpless ND I might have implied I was.

(I may have a different definition of 'lousy artist and coder' too; I used to work with coders who wrote missile guidance and code-cracking software for the MoD and artists who later moved on to polishing Weta and Pixar's 3D art.  I always felt like a dilettante around them...)

Ultimately if you have a go at making games you might learn you're better at it than you realise.

I thank you for your confidence...

It's kind of a shame that I ended up so specialised from AAA.  I'd like to think I am a great narrative designer, but it also means I am a lousy artist and coder compared to most indies...

Also, the whole Linux thing means I don't even get Visual Assist when I code, so I'll probably stick to writing and designing mostly.  I do have one idea my 2 year-old daughter helped me come up with, but it needs a physics programmer who knows the difference between a trebuchet and a catapult and has a love of razing cities...

If you work at home, you can even write off food expenses and other stuff like that.

Really?  You must have a really understanding tax-office.  You can often get part of your rent written off as a business expense (if you designate a whole room as your office and don't use it for non-work stuff), but food tends only to be eligible over here if you are entertaining a client or having a staff party.  Even then, a friend said that there are limits to the costs you can claim; she was warned that even a penny over the allowance and the whole bill is ineligible.

The first rule of dealing with a tax write-off is that things are rarely simple and its one of the few areas of law where you are considered guilty until proven innocent.

Unity is not a bad tool in a medium timescale, as long as you are not trying to do everything yourself.  I managed to go from no knowledge of Unity to a basic blocked out level in a single day, including a triggered 'rocks fall, bridge collapses' cut-scene, but I had a load of art assets and a coder working non-stop on the camera controller at the same time.

The problem I have, and TGEA is the same, is that you can really easily get out of your depth and end up overambitious just from the freedom.  Game Maker might be simple, but that simplicity encourages ingenuity more than blue-sky thinking and keeps you grounded.  I got one whiff of Unity and wasted a whole day playing with physics objects to see what I could do. 

If you have better self-control and discipline than me, as well as a strong understanding of what you can do in three days, I think it is still viable though.  Even if you end with a basic proof of concept demo, you've got something worth devoting a weekend game-jam to...

What kind of frameworks / engines will people be bringing, just out of curiosity?  I have Ren'Py (for Ubuntu) installed, but the game-scripts are platform agnostic and it will build for Mac and Windows too.  I'll also have XAMPP installed, but that's more because I do web-development on my laptop than anything deliberate.

I am wondering if I missed any obvious ones I should be using.  I would install OGRE, but I am not the world's best C++ programmer and my laptop is not really gaming-spec, so I'm not sure I could even run anything I made with it.

Now I think about it, I should probably get SFXR and Inkscape installed too, in case they come in handy.

I think the petrol-costs are my main motivation; money is tight right now, so I can't really justify both jams to my wife.

Ahh come on, live a little!

Meh...  Nobody else is even registered for the nearest (Luton, which is about 30-45 minutes away) jam, so there's always the risk that it would be just me on my own.  Also, the distance is awkward; far enough that the petrol-costs would be irritating, but too close to justify staying in the area even if I could afford to.

Besides, this is going to be my first Game-Jam, so arranging to leap into the unknown two weeks in a row would be a little scary. 

I just realised that this game-jam is the week after the IGDA's Global Game Jam... 

Am I man enough to survive two consecutive weekends of intense development?  Can I maintain my creativity across both weekends?

I doubt my wife would approve, so maybe I'll give GGJ a miss this year...

[Name]

Name: Anthony

Pic


Coming from
Milton Keynes (but staying in Duxford for the weekend)

What I does:
For games - Design, narrative design, writing, PHP / HTML / JS, semi-competent with Ren'Py , 3 years out of practice with C++, 5 years out of practice with Java and C#, 10 years out of practice with VB.
Otherwise - Lecturing on narrative design / game design, trying to convince indies and students not to attempt MMOs...

Some of the things I've worked on:

• Cancelled PC MMO for Microsoft - Level designer
• High School Dreams (PC narrative-driven social sim) - Designer / Writer
• Narrative iPhone game (awaiting release, still under NDA) - Designer / Lead Writer
• Narrative iPhone game (awaiting release, still under NDA) - Lead Writer
• Licensed iPhone game (awaiting release, still under NDA) - Lead Designer
• Deep Space (WiP / learning-experience Facebook game) - Sole developer
• Other misc. projects in progress

TIGJam participation:
This is my first, but I was working on AAA titles for four years before I lost my job in the credit-crunch.  I had been a lead designer for about six weeks when they announced the redundancies...

What I want out of TIGjam:
To make a game, meet new people, have fun and maybe even find an artist for my current project.