A question about game jams for the Unity community

Does this community host something like quarterly/annual game jams? I tried the search function and the results were kind of hit and miss with some very specific jams, but nothing that looked like it was a community-wide event? Or, does everyone take their jam desires off-site to Ludum Dare and the like?

 

Good question, I think there was one last year, but LD is more organised and generates more interest.

 

Why would it have to a a unity game jam and not just a game jam?

Ludum Dare and the Global Game Jam are great. But what you really should do is look towards your local community for game jams.

Every month we have a industry beer night, where we also so a game jam every 2nd or 3rd month. I know a lot od cities do similar things as well.

 

The local scene (as little of it as there is) doesn't work for me when I think of game jams. I like the challenge of the random theme or genre, short deadlines, and sharing with the community here. Actually, the suggested beer drinking and social elements are rather repulsive to me. I'm also more social online than face to face. [classic introverted hobby coder]

 

There was one randomly organized jam at the beginning of this year.
Some people occasionally participate in ludum dare as well.

But that's it, as far as I'm aware.

I mgith be overlooking something, of course.

 

Like they ^^^ said... there is no official Unity game jam held here (which has always seemed a little odd to me... what a great way to bring the community together as well as bring more people into trying out Unity).

There is also no regular community-hosted game jam. Once in a great while someone here decides to have a jam. Most of the times nobody has joined from what I have seen. Last year a few of us participated in a New Years Game Jam. It was fun.

I realize it is not specifically what you are looking for but I suggest checking out the general game jams and if you find one that interests you give it a go.

These sites list various game jams that are going on:

Indie Game Jams covers jams at various sites
itch.io Jams lists jams at itch.io
GameJolt Jams lists jams at GameJolt

You may want to join the One Game A Month community and participate.
1GAM

Or if you are more interested in something that requires a very small amount of time..
One Hour Game Jam this is held every week I think

Finally, you can always knock out a tiny Christmas or Winter themed game and post it over here.

 

All of the game jams I've participated in default to Unity game jams.

Considering Unity is so dominant in jams, I don't see what another jam ran by Unity would offer.

 

Global Game Jam in my city had over 100 participants and only 3 teams did not use unity.

In my experience the local game jams are the best, or things like global game jam where it is hosted by a local place.

 

Excellent resources! Thank you for consolidating and posting all of those.

 

I dunno the site stats for our GGJ site. We did have one Unreal developer in our team. But we bullied her into using Unity for the jam.

 

I entered the Ludum Dare myself. Maybe Unity could sponsor them?

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-37/?action=preview&uid=125758

 

While I don't believe we have ever sponsored a Ludum Dare, we have sponsored the Global Game Jam! We are this upcoming year as well so I highly encourage join a site next month and make cool things! You can look for a local GGJ17 site here!

We have a great deal of staff who have encouraged a we hold a community jam, and I personally would love to do one. While there are a great deal of jams going on at any time, I think there is value in empowering our community and giving everyone a target and space to develop.

 

It doesn't quite count as a jam but every two weeks @Gigiwoo hosts a Feedback Friday. You can find it under the Game Design forum section. Its pretty cool to check out what people have worked on and it provides motivation.

Kinda provides an internal deadline too by saying "Ok, I need to have this feature implemented by Friday or have this art done for this character by tomorrow, etc."