Game jams are little celebrations where individuals get together, normally ones who do not know each other or have worked together, and make a video game in a small amount of time. The point of game jams is to get people together to make a viable product and I cannot recommend participating enough. If you want to get into making video games, game jams are a great way to start!
Here are some of the game jams I have participated in, each game with its own unique background story:
I Take Stew
Virginia Tech Game Jam – Fall 2020, One Weekend
Gladipaper
Virginia Tech Game Jam – Fall 2019, One Weekend
Fazbear Mascot Simulator
Five Nights at Freddits Game Jam – February 2019 – March 2019, One month
This is an interesting project, as it is still being worked on, although I have not heard from DuckterStRm, the developer of the game. My involvement stopped with v0.1, when the game jam stopped, though he is still using my music for it.
I worked on a mostly 8-bit soundtrack in Famitracker, with some tracks not being released or used in game. The main theme was supposed be done with better samples, but I ended up running out of time writing the chiptunes for the game, so the main theme is a midi mock up from notation software. Maybe the raw midi instruments fit the cheesy, hilarious tone of the title screen?
drAib
Build (Windows only, unfortunately)
Rainbow Game Jam – July 2019, One Weekend
Candy
(The game currently seems to be down. I am in the process of excavating my old build. Feel free to listen to the music of the game below though.)
Dev-Ween 2018 – Universidade Federal de Itajubá(UNIFEI), Minas Gerais, Brazil
2018 Nov 01 19:00 (-0400) to 2018 Nov 03 07:00 (-0400)
Listenable Version of the Track (feel free to download)
This was a very interesting game jam, my first remote one that I have ever done. I had the opportunity to work with two easy-going devs named Waldomiro (programming/design) and Gustavo (visual art). These guys were a pleasure to work with and were super easy going. The game itself…is definitely is not finished, but it is a neat concept that I haven’t heard of before. The game’s premise is focused around managing a budget to buy treats for trick-or-treaters and then making sure that the kids are satisfied. If you run out of candy, the kids destroy your house! I really like the costumes for the kids, as some are actually a bit haunting, and others just goofy. The theme was based around Halloween, which was super funny, as the jam took place in November!
Making the music for the game was fun and also scary (ironic, isn’t it?). I tried to originally track and produce the music in the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) Ardour, but had a hard time getting midi to work. Not only that, but I eventually loaded too many plugins and instruments into to and I really brought it to its knees. It could not even render properly, which was scary as I only started working on the project the last day. I ended up re-tracking everything in Renoise with the same instrument plugins and effects and I ended up getting a usable track within an hour, something that Ardour was taking me all day to work with. It was a total bummer, as I wanted to embrace something that was free and open source, but it ended up not working for me. I do not think I will ever use Ardour again, but hopefully it will get better in the future, as I want to love it.
The music itself is very much funk-inspired, and I do not mean the Brazilian-based funk (pronounced funky), which is a very different kind of music. I originally wrote the melody in a very baroque style, which is still written on manuscript paper in my notebook, but then wanted to make it light-hearted, fun, and spooky. I envision each instrument in the mix to be a different Halloween-themed character. It was a fun game jam. I definitely wish that the whole team made more progress, but it’s a game jam and we were learning new things during it; it happens!
Homeless Hero
Click the image to play in a web browser (and give it a little time to load)
Global Game Jam 2017 – Virginia Tech, One Weekend