Building a Body of Work
The Unique Opportunities of Game Jams
I’m participating in the Rainbow Jam this year!
I love a good game jam, so today I thought I’d write about what makes game jams so compelling to me, and why you should be trying them from time to time as well!
As usual, this post is inspired by Thurday night’s Take Flight episode!
We met Celeste, who has a wonderful idea for a game but who finds herself overwhelmed when it comes to choosing mechanics to communicate those ideas to her players. She’s got so many cool ideas that her notes are in total chaos!
Co-Pilot Viditya Voleti knew that feeling, and he offered my favorite wisdom of the episode, which was simply “first games are like that, yeah”.
Whoa!
If you’re an experienced designer, Viditya’s words probably had you nodding along in agreement. I know I was!
First games really are like that. You have so many ideas to fit into the game, and you’re still not used to how many ideas you can fit into a single project. It’s the only project on your mind, and so it’s gotta hold everything.
One Game is a Project. Two Games is a Body of Work.
In other words, the best way to break out of the overwhelming pressure of a first game is to make more games!
But, that can be hard to do when your heart is fixated on your big project.
Enter the Game Jam!
What’s?
A Game Jam is a little event where people write games to a certain theme, usually within set parameters and on a set timeframe. Like the Rainbow Jam I linked above, some of them have broad themes and some of them, like the Carta Jam I hosted, have narrower ones.
A Game Jam is a great way to get yourself untethered from your Big Project and channel some of that excess creative energy into something. Creative constraints, including time constraints, force you to make something new and show yourself what you’re capable of.
My First Jam Game
Actually, even though it’s not my first game, Heroic Chord (Or, Rangers of a Broken World) was the first game I made by myself for a public release! So, when I first put it online, I couldn’t really think about much else.
Then, the Folklore Jam 2020 happened and, determined to make more connections in the online TTRPG design space, I decided to participate.
The result was a game that my friends and family loved, the very first seed that would eventually become Carta! It was Headless Guide, a solo game about my roots in Nova Scotia.
In writing Headless Guide not only did I take my first step into writing solo TTRPGs (and eventually hosting Solo But Not Alone), but I also proved to myself that there was more than one game in me. When I did that, suddenly my work improved dramatically, including my work on Heroic Chord!
It was as if I started seeing myself as a game designer rather than the designer of my game, if that makes sense.
Rainbow Jam 2023 - Come Together
That’s this year’s Rainbow Jam theme.
I’m working on a game called 4/4 Rebellion. It’s a game for four players and an optional GM.
The idea is that the party plays as a Trickster God. You know the one, a god or demigod who is known to steal things humanity wasn’t meant to have and give them to us. In 4/4 Rebellion (Or “Four Quarters Rebellion”) the Trickster God was cut into four pieces by the cleaver of the Queen of the Gods, and the player characters are those four pieces which have now become four different aspects of one deity.
I’m trying to build a game in which the players are four parts of one whole, and need to come together in order to overthrow tyrannical gods for the sake of humanity and freedom. Although the game isn’t literal in its queer themes, I think the notion of striking back against power by working as one, and the notion of stealing the authority of the divine, is a tale of queer rebellion. (I’m planning to make the manual in the colors of the Queer Pride Flag too!)
Identity Jam 2023 - Join Me!
So, I’ve decided to create a jam that combines the first and most recent game jams I have participated in - the Identity Jam!
Come join me. The idea is to write a game, no matter how big or how small, about who you are. Your culture, your history, your life experiences.
The rules are simple:
The bulk of the work on the game should be done during the jam time, October 2023.
The game should center on an aspect of your own identity.
Don’t borrow material from cultures not your own.
Make sure you have the rights to everything in the manual.
No AI art or writing, ew, gross.
No hateful content.
TTRPGs and Video Games are both perfectly good submissions!
Finally, Project Updates!
Remarine
I had a really, really awful playtest experience that derailed the whole project for a while, but I think I’ve got my confidence back. Maybe. I’ve got to make some tweaks to the moves, and I definitely need to reconsider the conditions and combat balance, but in the end, I do like the new approach to combat.
4/4 Rebellion
I started writing today! If you remember from a previous article, I often start with my Table of Contents so I can fill it out. (This also helps me nail down phrasing and hammer out tone by titling my sections) It looks like this!
4/4 Rebellion
Divine Rebellion
Divine Retribution
You are Individuals
You are One
Playing 4/4 Rebellion
Four Players
Optional Rule – Cards
You Will Need
Safety Tools
Building the Trickster
A Hero of the People
A Demigod’s Power
Dividing the Trickster
Four Sacred Artifacts
Your Legendary Ability
Your Limits
Your Quarter
Flow of Play
A Gift for the People
The Wrath of the Gods
The Power of Teamwork
A Tyrannical Pantheon
Love and War
Queen of the Gods
Harvest Prince
Mountain Sovereign
Sea Lady
Desert King
Death Himself
Rebirth Herself
Battlegrounds
The Fierce Sea
The Merciless Desert
The Towering Mountain
The Great Plain
The Bitter Swamp
The Mysterious Woods
Character Sheet
Random Artifacts
Treasure, or Underfoot
Treasure is shaping up to be a different game than I expected! It’s expanded to include other magical creatures as well, and the idea is becoming, well, a little sillier.
Now, the working title is Underfoot, and you play a collection of mischievous little magical creatures working to ruin a wizard’s very important day.
We hate wizards in this house they are buttholes.
Blazing Hymn: Lightbringer
I am so so excited with how this manual is shaping up! I even got permission to use some Hymnals written by Roar to Heaven star Jordan Nguyen to bring you a total of four new Hymnals on top of the new abilities and songs!
I’ve written a series of super-powerful moves called S-Moves, and I’m in the process of working on the mechanic surrounding them.
I also really want a way for a Hymnal to turn into a turret.
Big gun.
Thanks so much for reading this week’s Substack Saturday!
Next week, I’ll be in America for the New Jersey Web Festival, but I’ll make sure to show you all something, probably some design assets for 4/4 Rebellion!