Silly New Years 2015-2016 Jam

[UPDATE]
Prizes (kindly donated & judged by the listed members. Judges decisions are final, so suck it up buttercup)

• An asset store voucher for Love/Hate donated by @TonyLi for the "Kryten 4000 Award for Most Mentally UnstableAI"
• A small sample of Australian foods including Tim Tams by @tedthebug for the best use of the colour blue (note that the winner must be willing to pm a postal address to receive it)
• A small sample of Australian foods including Tim Tams by @tedthebug for the most imaginative use of the unity logo by a Unity employee or mod (note the winner must pm a postal address (office is fine) to receive it)
• MobilePaint, Create Texture Asset, Normal Map Maker, UniPix for "Best game name that is a palindrome or semordnilap" donated by @mgear .
• Modular Space Freighter kit for the best space themed game donated by @Schneider21
• + other surprise categories.

(Copied from the game design thread)

Hello friends and designers! Want to make a game in a week? Do you not feel you've recently made a wacky enough game, yet? Fear not, for there's a Jam for that!

Unity New Years 2015 Game Jam
Administered by me (Asvarduil/Andrew Gray)
Proposed by Sean @tedthebug
Blessed by @Gigiwoo (some restrictions may apply, see store for details.)
Want to help manage the jam? Message me your GameJolt User ID so I can add you.
Jam Theme: Something old, something new
What To Build: A working, prototype game that can be won and lost. The assets don't have to be there...yet.
Bonus Points: General wackiness.

Be sure to include the hashtag #unitynewyears2015jam in your game's GameJolt description. Additionally, be sure to post your game to the Feedback Friday topic for 9 Jan 2016-23 Jan 2016 to get feedback, fun, and ever-useful constructive critique.

Come on, up your game in the new year with us!

 

Just to clarify, it's a wacky, crazy, silly game that you built in a week (spread that week out how it suits you). There's no shame in what you produce & there's no prizes either. As per the Friday Feedback etiquette all feedback will be constructive. This jam is just for fun & to give us all a break away from 'the next big thing' we are all working on atm

 

Good luck with the jam!! Looking forward the game entries

 

Aww...

I have a question, though: "Week" as in "7 days" or as in "168 work hours"?

 

1 hour per day 7 hours total would be interesting.

 

Doable, when dev is sitting on pile of assets and code snippets. Depends on the game, of course.

 

Since there's no prize & it's just a chance for people to do those wacky ideas that they may have been to scared to try normally it's only an honour system for the timeframe. Just go for it, do something stupid you'd be to ashamed to show people. Break free from your normal game making constraints

Just.....

 

Will think about it.

 

I can suggest a prize. Judges will choose a few games at random to go viral. Since this is a friendly, fun thing, we will let every game that anybody makes over the period complete, regardless of if they sign up for the competition. And we will let everybody vote as judges too. Share the games you think deserve to win.

And because I don't want to overload the organizers we will not bother enforcing any ethics on these games. As a developer you are free to use any technique to suck people in to playing your games and sharing them.

 

We could get thehysteriaman on YouTube to review them. He only has 100-200 followers but once the video is up we can link it to our friends

 

maybe asset store sellers could offer vouchers as prices?
(i could give my MobilePaint, Create Texture Asset, Normal Map Maker, UniPix for the winner, and if others pool in, could make total price worth something..)

 

So nearing the end of day one. I have

• A terrain (consisting of a flat plane)
• A couple of characters (capsules)
• A selection system
• A movement system
• A building (a cube)
• Camera controls

On day two I think I need to make a combat system and a build system. Day three is my secret sauce day. Then its theme integration and playtesting.

Clickable* build of the game.

*Playable is just too strong a word at this point.

 

Count me in.

@BoredMormon are you cheating and starting early.

Hey, I hope you're not doing a yellow capsule Minions(TM) game!

 

This theme has thrown me, I'm stumped. I think I may have to fall back on the lame 'new take on an old game' unless I get hit by inspiration in the next day or 2.

 

If people want to donate prizes that's great (& thanks for the offer) & they should get in touch with @Asvarduil , maybe prizes could be for things picked by the donators e.g. Best use of a cat in a game, best shade of blue etc rather than for best game or 2nd place.? The main thing is for everyone to just let their hair down, let off some steam for the end of the year, & have fun doing something silly they wouldn't normally do.

 

How can I join this jam?

 

Just check the link in the main post, I think you may need to open an account with gamejolt (it's free if you do) so you can upload a build (preferably web build) of your game then post a link to it when the Friday Feedback in the game design forum is opened up in January so everyone can check it out.

 

Awesome :O thanks, I will also donate some money if you guys accept donations

 

I'll throw in a prize. Free Modular Space Freighter kit to the best Space-themed game.

I may or may not participate in this jam, but I fully support its existence and hope it's a trend that continues.

 

I'll offer a copy of Love/Hate to the Best AI -- "best" being entirely subjective and up to the judges' whims. I'm guessing the wackier the better.

 

And what about "Pong-Jam"? The thread got closed just when people started to show interest.

 

If you can make a wacky/silly version of ping that fits with the theme then go for it

 

Hey guys! Glad people are interested.

I think that prize money should be kept out of the jam, as that's not the point of the thing. Users who have Assets that they create, and who want to donate an asset license to a winner of a category, are more than free to do so, they don't have to go through me to do that. Just keep your eyes peeled on the judging categories (I'll try to make sure they're as nonsensical as possible.)

I'm accepting ideas for categories. So far, "Best Use of the Color Blue" by @tedthebug is one I like. I'm also considering, "Trippiest AI", "Most Varieties of Grass (the kind you walk on)", and "Unusual Uses of Farm Animals"...but nothing is set in stone yet.

Additionally, this is an informal jam. If you can contribute a 40-hour week spread out from Saturday to 9 January, that's fine; if you're going to start on Saturday and finish the Saturday after that, that's fine. The week limit isn't a hard limit, it's to ensure that this doesn't become "serious business" - it's not.

The point is to let your hair down and have fun. Create something short, wacky, and usher in a new year with a finished game. This isn't a competition, but it seems there's voluntary support to reward uniqueness, and I'm OK with that.

 

Yellow capsules are a great idea. Thanks! I believe there is also a prize for use of blue, so I'll jump on that too.

I'm starting early because there are a ton of write off days between now and the end of the jam. For example today I have to go to work. And after work my LARP war band are getting together to work on character design. Knowing these guys that will go till one in the morning.

Then there are pesky traditional family days like the 25th. If I even think about coding on that day my wife will kill me. Which would severely limit my ability to code afterwards.

 

If the winner of the colour blue is willing to pm me their postal address I'll donate a couple of authentic TimTam (biscuits) variety packs. If they have kids & aren't Australian I'll try to chuck in some Aussie lollies as well.

 

Uhm, did you get permission to use Unity in the jam name? I know unity doesn't allow asset store developers to use Unity in their asset names that implies that Unity was associated with the creation of the asset. (For branding purposes). Sorry if it sounds like im being "one of those people", I just want to avoid any future issues

 

Luckily it's not too late to change it. I'd used "Unity" because the original idea was for the jam to be within the Unity community. However...Unity folks? Do you want it changed? I'm open to alternatives.

 

I thought you used "Unity" to imply the games should be made with the Unity engine.

 

That too...but I'm not personally picky on the tech used. Originally this came out of the Game Design forum, where we're (usually) engine/tech-agnostic.

Would "Unity Community New Years 2015-2016 Jam" be a clearer Jam title?

 

Or just
"Silly Season Silly Game Jam 2015-16"?

I'm not overly concerned with the engine used tho some of the prizes being offered are unity assets but that can be between the winner & supplier. To me the main idea is to just have fun with any stupid idea we can come up with.

 

I went with "Silly New Years 2015-2016 Jam" instead. It sounds better.

I'll amend my post in the Game Design forum, you should amend this one.

 

Contact support. They might give you reply before the weekend. (Doesn't unity have phoneline?)

 

Guys when should I start working on the project? and how will the people know that I only spent one week doing it? just a thought.

 

Start whenever you want. Because it's a busy time of the year it's not a strict week, we just don't want people busting a gut to make a perfect game. The idea is to keep it silly & fun & just a bit stupid. It's a no stress competition working on the honour system.

 

Alright great!

 

I'll start in January and be lucky to get in a quarter of that time (maybe 10 hours), so I hope nobody minds if I start with a framework from the Asset Store to bypass the busywork part of the game. Even so, I'm looking forward to having a little fun on this!

 

So, it should be submitted before january 9th or am I missing something?

Cause while this sounds interesting, I have a job.

 

January 9th is when judging begins, but honestly the categories are like the points in Whose Line Is It Anyways? - They really don't matter. This is a Jam not a contest.

Speaking of categories another one occurs: "Most Insidious Use of a Length of String". Good luck with that one.

 

You don't mind if I do my dream game during this Jam do you, it's not silly but I would love to do it?

 

There's no reason you can't. Just don't stress out about it. If you find yourself stressing out, you can always make a game about chickens. I plan to!

 

Cool, but shouldn't the game be about Turkeys, seasonal and all.

 

Could be, but I prefer chicken because I'm funny like that. If you want a game about turkey, go right ahead.

I also can't help but feel like I'm becoming the Unity Community's version of Sheogorath or something.

 

Christmas Hams or maybe fireworks for the New Year

 

I'm starting to get an idea, way beyond my abilities so others are free to run with it, about TurDuckEn - a seasonal multiplayer involving 3 friends trying to survive Christmas.

 

Or a puzzler. The duck has flight ability, the turkey can fan its tail & turn to form a protective shield, & the chicken has a dash attack where it runs out & pecks the enemy then dashes back behind cover. Sort of a seasonal Lost Vikings.

 

As long as it's not your own framework - that seems fair.

 

No, it's going to be a zombie survival MMO RTS FPS framework of course.

 

Don't forget the SAO, Slenderman, Final Fantasy VII, and Pokemon influences!

 

So UnitZ? From experience you will need more then a week to make something of that framework. Its a decent start, but it requires a lot of refactoring to change anything.

 

No worries, I'll just work in the refactoring while I add SAO, FF7, Slender, Pokemon, and full morphing character customization. But now that you mention it, I might just actually look into UnitZ for real! Or maybe I'll just tackle a text game so I can gun for "Most Insidious Use of the Length of a String"....