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[droqen]

AND WE'RE OFF! I won't be adding new signups, but it's a personal challenge anyway - if you want to do it, you still should!

Last year,
I made four games (edit by droqen in 2019: those links are dead. you can still access the games at this link.) of entirely different genres in four days. I failed: my (utterly insane) goal was to make 9 games in 10 days. I'm glad I even tried, because my real, unstated goal was to DIVERSIFY & CREATE in the last dregs of the year, and that was lovely. Whatever comes of this, I hope it at least allows me to make strange new things.

Shoot for the moon, right?

I'm doing it again this year but I realized maybe other people would want to take part in some crazy rapid game creation. So, without further ado, I present:

the insane & absolute end-of-year
Variety Megajam

Welcome to the thread where I will post games and where you can get involved and maybe post games once this thing gets started.

I'm going to wrap up after these two things:

1. The Rules

• During the last 10 days of the year, make 9 games. Originally the idea was to make one game every day for 10 days, with one chance to take a break or fail (hence, 9 games in 10 days). I suggest this structure, but you don't have to stick to it. You can make allll the games at the same time if you really want to.
  

• Every game has to be of a different genre, or different from one another in some other significant way. I made this rule to make lots of things that aren't platformers, because I realized I was making a lot! So I decided 'platformer' was a whole genre, even though I could have divided it into a lot of different kinds of platformers. It's up to you to decide how you're gonna interpret 'genre'.
  
  *** clarification! ***
  
  When I say 'each game must be of a different genre', I mean that if your first game is a 'platformer', the second one can't be one (and neither can the third, fourth, etc). This means as the megajam goes on, things will get harder, especially if you're not being careful to save your comfort zones for later.
  Make only one game of each genre during the jam.
  

• You can do it on a team; you can do it alone; you can grab different assistants for different games of the day. Whatever!
  

• If you can't make games during the end of December because of holidays, obligations, personal preference, etc., Japanese_Mountain_Billy suggested the first 10 days of the new year. Sounds reasonable to me! The beginning of a new year is approximately as important as the end of an old one. Likewise, if you think you can do only 8 days from Dec 30 to Jan 6 for some reason, that's cool too. Make 7 games in that time! or, if you want to do 20 days, you are insane
  

• There is absolutely no shame in dropping out, unless the threat of such is more motivating than it is negative, in which case there is exactly the right amount of dishonour in dropping out. I'M WATCHING YOU.
  

2. The Promised

Droqen / @droqen	• 9 games in the last 10 days of 2013 (HaXe)
cigumo	• 9 games in the last 10 days of 2013
@dev_dude	• 9 games in the last 10 days of 2013
@ToadieTechnika	• 9 games in the last 10 days of 2013 (Construct 2)
Daniel X Moore	• 9 games in the last 10 days of 2013
GCshepard	• 9 games in the last 10 days of 2013
@crhallberg	• 9 games in the last 10 days of 2013
@CammmLewis	• 9 games in the last 10 days of 2013 (Game Maker)
eigenbom / @eigenbom	• "N games done, starting on the 27/12 :D"
CNIAngel / @CNIAngel	• 9 games in the last 10 days of 2013
eyeliner	• 9 games in the last 10 days of 2013 (C2/GM/MMF2/DXStudio)
BlueSweatshirt	• 9 games in the last 10 days of 2013 (LÖVE + custom tools)
mokesmoe	• 9 games in the last 10 days of 2013
@ZoeQuinnzel	• 9 games in the last 10 days of 2013
@netgrind	• 9 games in the last 10 days of 2013
@CapsizedMoose	• 9 games in the last 10 days of 2013
@gamesbyplaydate	• 9 games in the last 10 days of 2013 (25 in the last 25!)
@JAH2488	• 9 games in the last 10 days of 2013
@cjacobwade	• 7 games in the last 10 days of 2013
pecant	• 5 games in the last 10 days of 2013
@micahrjohnston	• 5 games in the last 10 days of 2013
@Jpailthorpe	• 5 games in the last 10 days of 2013
@2decimal0	• 5 games starting on Dec 28th
arrogant.gamer / @arrogantgamer	• 4 games in the last 10 days of 2013
@peterMartingell	• at least 3 games in the last 10 days of 2013 (corona sdk)
seagaia / @Seagaia2	• 'at least .. a few' games in the last 10 days of 2013 (using Flixel+Flash)
@eskaibo	• (something?) in the last 10 days of 2013 (mmf2 or gamemaker?)
pietro ferrantelli	• 9 games in 10 days (scattered) (Construct 2)
Parthon	• 9 games in the first 10 days of 2014
@thegrieve	• 9 games in the first 10 days of 2014 (Javascript and/or Python)
@avarisclari	• 10 games in the first 10 days of 2014
paulmcgg / @_dreamfeel	• 8-9 games in the first 10 days of 2014
DantronLesotho / @dantronlesotho	• 7 games in the first 10 days of 2014
@Dumbtack	• 7 games in the first 10 days of 2014
Japanese_Mountain_Billy	• (unconfirmed: something in the first 10 days of 2014?)
UP_Kevin / @undergroundpixl	• 2 games over the last 10 days of 2013
Floresy	• 2 games over the last 10 days of 2013
Hangedman	• hmm

+ To be added to the list, just make a post or bug me on twitter (@droqen) with something expressly about the variety megajam on there. I'll (eventually!) update this list of those involved with their games.

(3. The Addenda)

BULLETIN FROM CIGUMO:
- All join IRC channel #VarietyMegajam on irc.freenode.net so we can have some fun and share our despair.
- Use the #VarietyMegajam hashtag on twitter, for great justice.

Code:

* oh and dear forum moderators i didn't know where to put this because it's not a competition. it's really more of a get-together, but on the internet, i guess. i guess? i dunno. jams! JAMS! why don't you have a jam forum?

[melos]

I'm half-assedly committing. I'll at least try for a few, probably will be too busy to do all 9 or 10, though.

[Japanese_Mountain_Billy]

I can't do it for the last 10 days of the year, but what about the first 10 days of the new year?...

[arrogant.gamer]

This sounds horrifying and awesome. I so want to commit to this, but at the moment I just don't have enough tools. I can't say that I'm in this year -- right now 1 game a month seems intimidating enough -- but I swear by my great flaming sword that I'll do it next year.

I'll certainly be watching this forum though. Oh, how I will watch it.

[droqen]

you can do your 10 days at the beginning of 2014 instead of at the end of 2013 if you like!

especially you, arrogant.gamer

the point is for it to be horrifying or awesome! but for those who consider this too horrifying... this is by no means a formal jam. it had a population of 1 last year and i'm more concerned with getting people to quickly make games they normally wouldn't (in a hopefully inspiring, motivating way) than getting people to follow My Strict Rules. I'm going add 'the rules this person is following' to The Promised.

[cigumo]

Count me in.

Any tools to recommend?  What are you all using? Haxe? Flash?
I want to go extra crazy and try something new, or not.

[melos]

I'm gonna be using Flixel + Flash - super easy to distribute, fast compiles, good for short games you won't be needing to scale in terms of external data. good jam mix!

jon (https://twitter.com/JonathanKittaka) might be joining me on a few, or he might be doing something of his own, dunno. he's probably going to be busier during the holidays than I.

[Daniel X Moore]

I once did 90 games in 100 days, but I've really fallen off the wagon since then.

I'd better hop on this to regain my skills.

Count me in!

[Hangedman]

i'd liiiiike to.

hmmm.

[GCshepard]

This sounds really insane. I'll definitely be giving it a shot.

[cigumo]

I propose two things:
- All join IRC channel #VarietyMegajam on irc.freenode.net so we can have some fun and share our despair.
- Use the #VarietyMegajam hashtag on twitter, for great justice.

I'll be giving http://html5quintus.com/ a try. I've used it a couple of times and looks promising.
Construct 2 was interesting too, but I want something I can code with on my iPad too

[droqen]

I'll probably be unavailable for a few days around christmas (making games but internetless), but I'm in for irc otherwise!

[arrogant.gamer]

OK! I'm in! (arrogant.gamer / @arrogantgamer)

I'm going to do "Variety Megajam: Zebra Edition"! That is: 4 games in 10 day. I'll make each game in 1 day, but take a break between each game so that I can still be an awesome boyfriend. Priorities, right?

For tools, I was looking at learning to LÖVE, but Quintus looks even better. I'm probably going to give them both a "whirl" at the beginning of December, and then do the Ludum Dare (rhymes with "pear") with the one I choose. Probably, maybe, hopefully, that will give me enough training with my chosen tool to do this crazy mixed up Jam.

As for Genres! A winner is me: I've only made two games, so I can do whatever I want! Probably, then, a platformer, a short RPG, maybe a bullet hell (I hate those), and then something else.

[paulmcgg]

I'm in. This is going to be a busy holiday period, so I'm not sure how successful I'll be, but  gonna try. Probably 10 days after New Year's day, with one day off for family event and one off for travel, but if I have any good days before I might take them. :D

@_dreamfeel

[paste]

This sounds cool, and it starts on my birthday!  , but i am committed to several things at the end of this year which are preventing me from participating...

[cigumo]

I'll probably be unavailable for a few days around christmas (making games but internetless), but I'm in for irc otherwise!

I've just registered the IRC channel.
Everyone feel free to drop by!

[Floresy]

Yes. I totally want to try this, I can't do the next Ludum Dare because school, so this will be perfect.  I'm going to make 2 games with Polycode, and with my grand total of finished games being zero, no genre is off limits to me!

[droqen]

I've seen mention of this a couple times, so I just wanted to clarify the intent behind the 'different genres' rule - I edited the first post too, but here's what I meant (I'm not sure what you guys think the rule is!):

Each game you make during the jam must not share its 'genre' with any other game you've made during the jam. What a 'genre' is is up for discussion but it doesn't matter what you have made in the past: all that matters is that, within your JAM PRODUCTION FACILITY, no two games share a fundamental concept codified as genre.

Don't make two roguelikes. Don't make two Pong clones. Don't make two puzzle platformers. Don't make two RPGs. Don't make two mystery-solving games.

Make one of everything, until you're not sure what else to make.

The hope is that this cumulative restriction will take you out of your comfort zone and get you making things you wouldn't have otherwise made! Good luck. Good luck. Good luck.

[arrogant.gamer]

I think Derez [infinite] and Narcissus have got me wanting to make a runner. So I think I'll make a runner too. Maybe also something arcade-like, with perhaps some similarity to Tetris. I checked in to the irc channel, I think I saw the name "cigumo"... so that's working!

[Terrorbuns]

GONNA DO THIS EVEN IF IT KILLS ME [it won't]

I probably won't be able to get many games out since I'll most likely be working half those days if not most of them but THAT WON'T STOP ME.

I will try and finish at least THREE of the games.