The 3rd Kajam focused on storytelling just reached its end, yielding 4 new games for all to discover!
For the next week, everyone will be able to rate the games, so that everyone can get enough ratings for interesting results. Go explore them, and please leave feedback on the games you play!
Note: since this is a relaxed competition, we're leaving the game submissions open for any late entrant (I'm looking at you @toasty!)
Because games don't always have to be about shooting things, the first 2018 Kajam is about telling Stories! Explore how to tell a nice and engaging story to your players, maybe by focusing on developing interesting choices, or on the attachment to the characters, or simply use this excuse to finally try and tell a story for your first time!
While every single type of video game can be greatly affected by its storytelling, here are cheap ways you could exercise your talents:
Don't forget to share tips & progress reports with the community throughout the month. Have fun!
If you have a link to add, please share it in the comments.
The 24 days of the 2nd Kajam, focusing on Sound Effects, have passed by. Congrats to the entrants!
Due to the low entry count, we have decided to bypass the voting phase and just end the jam as is. Everyone is a winner! We're leaving entry submissions open throughout the end of the month for any late entrant.
Until the next jam, go check the submitted games and make sure to leave a comment on them!
See you next year and… Happy holidays to all! :)
After a week of voting, the results of the first monthly competition are out! Congratulations to the podium ;) And thanks to all who took part in playing & reviewing the games.
The next Kajam will start this Friday evening (7pm UTC), i.e. on December 1st. Our first guest host will be @dollarone, announcing the theme once again as the event launches. See you this week-end!
Congrats to all the entrants of the 1st Kajam!
This first event proved to be intimate with just 4 entries. I hope that even those of you who could not complete their games in time still had fun, and maybe learnt about game feel in the process! I've left the submission form open for late entrants.
Now for the little surprise: Game voting is open to everyone having an Alakajam! account. Curious to see how juicy our games turned out? Try them and leave a rating! And don't forget to review @HuvaaKoodia 's unranked entry as well ;)
The results of the tiny competition will be revealed this Sunday, 7pm UTC as usual.
The Kajam month-long event series continues, with @dollarone being the planned host for the next event. Just like the first event was focused on Game juice, the next one will be targeting a different aspect of game development chosen by its host. It will be announced on December 1st.
Stay tuned through Twitter or Reddit to be reminded of the event launch!
The last few days have been quite productive! I've been joined by @YO0oo0OY on sound design, who already sent cool assets. With particles, screenshakes, short flashes and tight sounds, the game already feels rather juicy!
I still have to finish the art (enemies are still red squares…), once this is done I will mostly have to make the rooms more varied and interesting, while addressing performance issues (for now the whole maze is generated on launch instead of being streamed). Not mentioning the twist ending I'd like to do…
I'm keeping a GIF album updated as I work, and here is the latest entry:
For my Kajam entry, I have decided to go with a top-down, twin-stick shooter. That should give me plenty of opportunities for finetuning the game feel and juicing up the action!
For my last MiniLD entry I tried the exercise of making a whole game design document before coding the game. Even if the actual game was quite small, it was fun writing the doc, and I think it helped keep the development focused and the end result consistent.
I won't do a full GDD this time but still, here's my notes on the upcoming entry:
The goal is to survive while finding the exit. I have a cool idea in mind for the ending, but I don't know if I'll have the time to implement it… If not I'll just make the difficulty ramp up until the player dies :)
Particles! Tweens! Screen shakes! Flashes and explosions!
For the 1st monthly Kajam, your mission – if you accept it – is to make a small game and push its juiciness to 11, by adding all these little details that make a core gameplay super satisfying.
That includes not only visual & audio feedback but also, gameplay-wise, how tight and clear the controls are – in particular for action-oriented games. See the bottom of the post for a list of resources!
Have fun! Don't forget to share tips & progress reports with the community throughout the month.
If you have a link to add, please share it in the comments.
Missing Alakajam! already? Fear not! In-between the main competitions we will run longer, more relaxed events. Kajams are month-long jams where the goal is to practice a specific aspect of game making.
The theme of each Kajam will not be elected by votes, but instead chosen by a host picked every month. For this first month I will be that host, announcing the topic on October 13th! (UTC evening). If you're interested in the topic, you'll have a whole month to work on a small game and submit it to the competition.
Wan
Rat Park