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The next gamejam will mark a year of gamejams here on gd.se! Consequently, we should make sure it's a special kind of gamejam with... special kind of stuff in it.

You get the point. We need some sort of ideas. We're not time pressed though, so feel free to think for as long as you want. Whenever you can think of something appropriate, post it as an answer here. The jam will most likely take place on the 23rd (or rather 24th) of October, for a proper anniversary, though this is not exactly settled yet.

I'll bake a cake.

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Potluck Jam

Just riffing off of the meta jam and cake jam ideas here.

a potluck
Thanks Michijan28 @ Wikimedia Commons

Before the start, everyone submits 5 "foods" (English words) into a common "buffet".

At the start, the words are shuffled and dealt to participants, so everyone has 5 random words from what others brought.

Pick 3 of those. That's your jam theme.

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    \$\begingroup\$ This sounds incredibly silly and fun \$\endgroup\$
    – SpartanDonut
    Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 20:33
  • \$\begingroup\$ This sounds like a great idea. \$\endgroup\$
    – user35344
    Commented Aug 8, 2014 at 8:21
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Community building exercise?

This is less of a theme and more of an idea. Recently a few of us in the GDSE chat took an adventure into Graphic Design Stack Exchange's chat, The Ink Spot.

I hoped to talk with some designers and artists to potentially to collaborate on upcoming portfolio game prototypes. To me, for the most part, they (both mods and members) seemed fairly interested in getting involved.

I have 2 thoughts:

Art-first challenge

  1. Commission a second contest "Game Art Jam" for the Graphic Designers in The Ink Spot chat to take place before the "Game Dev Jam".
  2. With possible mandatory art submission to OpenGameArt.org?
  3. Then for the "Game Jam" theme, require people make a game built off only the art submitted in that contest?

Team up

Pair up with our art friends over in the other chat for some sort of team-based jam.

I realize some of this goes against the typical game jam mentality; the focus on lean prototyping with less visual appeal to get devs working more on mechanics etc. But I think getting others involved could be beneficial to everyone and even M0R3 AWSOM3R!

Just some random thoughts. Let me know what you think!

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    \$\begingroup\$ I personally love the idea of teaming up with another site. Lets see what others think. \$\endgroup\$
    – Alexandre Desbiens
    Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 13:50
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    \$\begingroup\$ This is awesome. \$\endgroup\$
    – OMGtechy
    Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 13:52
  • \$\begingroup\$ Like the Art First Challenge but it is dependent on participation from the folks over there. Teaming up isn't a horrible idea either, but again is dependent on participation over there... which could go awry. "By the time I asked everyone was already on a team," "No one wanted to help me with my game idea" and "I work better alone" are some things that come to mind. \$\endgroup\$
    – SpartanDonut
    Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 14:14
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    \$\begingroup\$ yea good point, there are always those additional challlenges when you move into the groupwork, responsibility and cooperation - but even with the art first challenge, i think we could really strengthen some community ties \$\endgroup\$
    – Joe
    Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 14:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ I like the idea. \$\endgroup\$
    – user15805
    Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 14:39
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    \$\begingroup\$ After some thought, this idea can be very risky too. Collaboration over the internet is hard, and making game-ready art is surprisingly hard if you've never done it before. Experience working with amateur artists and sites other than OGA made me realise what a god-send OGA really was: no more unaligned sprite sheets, lack of background channels, uncropped/uncut assets and so on. Also, are their users familiar with the principles of animation? You'd be surprised at the number of otherwise-talented artists who are unable to do a basic walk cycle; it's a different skill set. \$\endgroup\$
    – congusbongus
    Commented Aug 8, 2014 at 7:42
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    \$\begingroup\$ i completely agree its an entirely different skill set and this could totally blow up in our faces. it could also be the most amazing community galvanizing collaboration event in the history of the internet. i really don't think any of these issues would totally make or break a game jam submission. maybe i am wrong it happens a lot. but would a sub par sprite sheet really ruin a game? especially if we are all using the same broken sprites \$\endgroup\$
    – Joe
    Commented Aug 8, 2014 at 13:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ I'd also like to see this, but as mentioned, I think it'll be prohibitively difficult to coordinate. That would raise the bar for entry quite high and reduce the number of participants and submissions and hence fun. The first idea sounds good though, if the Graphics people are willing to organise their half. \$\endgroup\$
    – Anko
    Commented Aug 10, 2014 at 14:22
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One button game

In honour of the one year anniversary, make a game that is limited to accepting input as if it came from a single button.

You may accept input from any device (keyboard, mouse, touchscreen) but it must be treated as a button only - no gestures, no clicking on specific areas.

Bonus points for originality: try not to make a infinite runner / flappy bird clone!

See here for examples.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ And next year we could have 2 buttons! :p \$\endgroup\$
    – Anko
    Commented Aug 12, 2014 at 10:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ This is a cool idea. Also this. \$\endgroup\$
    – Buns Glazing
    Commented Aug 13, 2014 at 3:07
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Anniversary Game Jam: Meta

Make a game about game development. You can even include users from the community as playable characters!

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    \$\begingroup\$ "Starring Josh Petrie as Chuck Norris and Byte56 as Batman!" \$\endgroup\$
    – Anko
    Commented Aug 10, 2014 at 14:15
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Anko With Noctrine as Dr. Evil! \$\endgroup\$
    – hasherr
    Commented Aug 10, 2014 at 23:26
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Anniversary Game Jam Theme: Cake

Nuff said.

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    \$\begingroup\$ But... its a lie! \$\endgroup\$
    – user36976
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 18:48
  • \$\begingroup\$ "Its gamejam anniversary. Everyone bring their cake, we are gona have a party." \$\endgroup\$
    – Tofu_Craving_Redish_BlueDragon
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 20:22
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Ninjas

...and ninja-like things. enter image description here

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Bruce Lee wasn't a ninja though. \$\endgroup\$
    – user15805
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 20:04
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    \$\begingroup\$ @AlexM. "..and ninja-like things." \$\endgroup\$
    – OMGtechy
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 20:05
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Anniversary Game Jam: the random tip-top

  1. Take the top 3 themes.
  2. Choose one randomly.
  3. ???
  4. JAM!
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  • \$\begingroup\$ Unless I'm not following this is more or less how we've done it for a some of the jams already (2 of 3 I think?) which is fine but not very different. I wouldn't care if we did this again though. \$\endgroup\$
    – SpartanDonut
    Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 14:15
  • \$\begingroup\$ @SpartanDonut, 2 of 4. Although it's pretty standard, I enjoyed the voting process. pctroll: you can see the old polls here: Fall / There can only be one, and (Winter / Time is Broken)[meta.gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/1450/… \$\endgroup\$
    – John McDonald
    Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 15:01
  • \$\begingroup\$ Yeah the voting is fun. We need a better system (votes hidden IMO) for it though I think. \$\endgroup\$
    – SpartanDonut
    Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 15:02
  • \$\begingroup\$ What if this is one of the top three themes? Note: see here. \$\endgroup\$
    – The Guy with The Hat
    Commented Aug 11, 2014 at 16:40

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