Brackeys game jam

Hello, I’m a fairly new dev and I was thinking of doing the brackeys game jam. Does anyone have any tips for a new dev?
Thankyou

Spend time working through the Unity Learn pathways. :wink:

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I would say the biggest tip is make a game.

That is not Snark.

I mean make a Beginning and an end, then do all the stuff that a game needs like menus.

Then and only then add a bunch of content.

If you want more tips here’s a quick rundown:

  1. Have as few buttons as possible that does as much as possible.

  2. No one gives a damn about your story, and you really need to get over that if you think they do. No elevator pitch should include story details not necessary to explaining the game.

  3. ideas are worthless. No one is going to steal them and they are not a bargaining chip.

  4. Do not make the mistake of over explaining. Way too many games have this problem. It is fun to Experiment to figure out how a game works. Do not rob players of that.

  5. You have about five seconds to get the players interested. If you are not a AAA developer you better damn well make sure people are doing what they’re gonna be doing almost immediately.

  6. Decals are probably the most underrated feature you can use in a game. There is so much you can do with them.

  7. Don’t be afraid to push boundaries in ways that AAA games can’t. Allow your game to be breakable and nuts.

  8. Be nice and professional in the communities.

  9. The animation tools have way more function than just animation. You can use them for State machines and use animation curves for all kinds of things like bullet damage over distance.

  10. pool everything you can. Even if you don’t think it’s gonna be necessary make it standard practice.

  11. Keep your scripts small and use functions to make them clean.

  12. Do not skip Grey boxing. Ever.

  13. Doom builder and trench brush are both very useful to make content fast. Just export them as objects. Pro builders is cool at all, but those two tools have decades on it and you can make a map in 30 minutes with them.

Also:

  1. sneak in the garbage collector when you can. Pause menus, loading zones, etc…

  2. add scenes whenever possible, don’t just reload.

  3. if moving things start glitching out, check to make sure the the transform position isn’t getting too big. Common gotcha.

  4. if an object is accelerating, Accelerate it half way, then move it, then Accelerate it the rest of the way. This sounds stupid, but it will minimize discrepancies between slower and faster hardware.

  5. Make sure you are using the correct kind of collision detection on your rigid bodies.

  6. Use ray or sphere casting between frames Rather than collision detection when possible, such as with projectiles.

  7. Avoid using search functions like get component every frame.

  8. Use one script that acts on multiple game objects rather than putting that script on every object when possible.

  9. Design scripts to be reusable when possible. Don’t make a script for every weapon, make a script that works on all weapons That you can tweak as needed.

Also also:

  1. Force yourself to work on a project at least 30 minutes a day and quit if you feel burn out.

  2. Jump around a project to different sections to avoid burnout and focus on what interests you at the moment. But also know when it’s time to force yourself to finish something.

  3. Rubber duck a problem. That is having an imaginary conversation explaining what the problem is and what you wanna do. Type it out if it helps. You would be surprised how often this will get you unstuck.

  4. if something Feels ridiculous and overly complicated, make sure to poke your head around and see there’s not a better solution. I think everyone starts off with a small set of tools And ends up trying to use them for everything when there is a much simpler solution.

  5. help others. You can only truly master something by turning around and teaching others what to do.

  6. Play games that are in the vein of the project you’re doing. It will keep you motivated and give you ideas and tap you into the common language of design People are used to.

  7. Gamers are mostly jerks that will never understand what you’re going for. Don’t waste your time bending over backwards for them. And understand that they are mostly incapable of understanding new ideas. When you tell them you’re making an MMO, they are instantly thinking wow and you will never break them of that.

  8. Finish what you start

Lastly, The best tutorials are the ones you never see.

It’s probably the biggest game development cliché, but it’s true

Thankyou so much for sharing all of this knowledge I’m going to work through it!:+1:

In my opinion, Game Jams are most fun when you work in a team. Especially in-person.

I can understand why but I just don’t know anyone to team up with.