My First Game Jam Was Stressful But Also Awesome

The excitement of making a video game in one month and the amazing friends I made along the way

In December 2023, I sought new opportunities to work with game developers. I am nearly a year into my career as a music composer for video games and have worked on a handful of titles. But I have trouble finding new clients.

I figure that if I enter a game jam, I’ll leave with more connections. More connections mean more opportunities for growth, and the prospect of more money in my pocket is intriguing.

I am also genuinely interested in being part of a bigger team. Freelancing by yourself can get lonely. A game jam was my solution to overcome loneliness.

What is a game jam?

A game jam is an event, online or in person, where game developers, artists, and musicians like myself come together for a specified amount of time to create a game. From start to finish, playable or not, something has to be turned in by the deadline. Some game jams are very short: forty-eight hours or a week. But ours was one month long, so it was good for me to develop my network over this longer period.

Assembling the team

Before this event, I only knew the developers I had worked with. They were busy with their day jobs and personal game projects, and I knew nobody in the industry.

GDEX, an Ohio-based gaming expo company, organized the game jam I signed up for. The organizers did a great job at managing people and assigning teams based on what roles were unfulfilled.

There was a large group session to assign those who had been teamless during the first few days of the jam. The organizers took stock and assigned everyone but a few of us to a team.

Those left were two developers, a visual artist, and a musician. The four of us grouped up and got to brainstorming.

The idea

During our first meeting, we wanted to figure out an idea to begin working on. We took stock of all of our favorite games. Spelunky, Skyrim, Rocket League, and so on.

The jam's theme was giving, which coincided with the holiday season. It would be a whirlwind, and I looked forward to every moment.

We tried to temper our expectations because this was our first game jam. After all, we only had a month to complete the game.

I have always wanted to work on a soundtrack for a frog-related game. I wanted something swampy and amphibious, green and bright, soothing to the ears, atmospheric and delicate, beautiful. I could go on.

So I pitched them an idea: a frog game in which you’re a delivery person who has to give items to your neighbors. The game's main idea is not only about giving but also about togetherness. At the time, I wasn’t fully attached to the idea, so I didn’t deliver my pitch with the highest degree of passion. It was half-baked at best.

But the other three on the team loved it. Our visual artist didn’t create in a cutesy style, and the developers were used to playing games with more blood and gore.

I prefer playing competitive games. But somehow, the idea clicked. We took it and ran. Soon, we had drawn up a narrative, creating Pinterest boards for the art style, and began developing the game's basic mechanics.

The challenges of game development

I knew that none of this was going to be easy at least for the actual development of the game. The music bit was over fast, but I’ll come back to that. Programming things that I’ll never know about took the longest amount of time.

Frequently, the leading developer became frustrated with her ability and inability to produce certain in-game mechanics. Rightfully so, she had never really dived into Godot, a programming environment (and also a programming language?) before.

Nearly all of the development-related things were brand new. Our other developer was only meant to help with level design, but he did what he could.

Luckily, we decided on a straightforward platforming game beforehand. Players control Ribberto, our froggy protagonist, running, jumping, and using his tongue to grapple onto platforms.

As a bonus, they could also use a skateboard to speed up, and the level design features tiny ramps that players can jump from at speed.

Overcoming Other Challenges

Because it was the holiday season, it was incredibly difficult to get everyone on a call at the same time. We made it work by finding time to meet, usually later at night. We brainstormed, developed, and created simultaneously.

This was it. This was the team I had wanted for so long, and we worked really well together. However, it was not without its setbacks. It was a bit slow going at times. We all respected the deadline differently, leading to some frustrations.

Our artist was on point, constantly delivering various sprites, backgrounds, and assets throughout the month. The developers were making steady progress.

I had gone through several iterations of soundtrack songs before settling on the few that made the final cut. I wanted to create three to five tracks, one per level, for our game. We ended up using three of them: two for levels and one for whenever dialogue boxes appear.

Seeing the basic designs our artist created for the levels helped tremendously to create music. Snowy houses, icy roads, and pleasant wintry village life helped my creative brain lock into the vibes we needed to bring the world to life. Everything was coming together nicely—not particularly smoothly, but nicely.

The disaster and the deadline

Just a day before the game was meant to be submitted, disaster struck. The game was semi-playable, but not everything was working as intended. There were various bugs, and debugging was a timely process.

Our main developer is a perfectionist, and she said she had ADHD. For example, she stayed up for 30+ hours straight working on the game until it was time to submit it.

It was me and her on a call when our time ran out. The music was added last, and the final cut was barely made.

At the ten-minute mark, we discovered that a platform had stopped moving. This platform was vital to completing the level and finishing the game.

We made concessions. My sound effects didn’t make the cut, and the visual artist's awesome end credits image was cut. And upon release, the game could not be finished by a player, barring some crazy glitch.

With two minutes to spare, she uploaded the files to the game jam and pressed submit. Our hearts were beating fast to make it cut.

The victory lap

Seeing our game go live on the game jam website, a page on itch.io (that I’ll link at the end of this article), wasn’t a huge relief. Nor did it feel like a triumphant victory.

The main developer went to bed for the first time in a day and a half, and I continued with my work day as usual. But the real magic happened at the end of the week when the event organizers streamed their playthroughs of all the game submissions.

When the stream started, all I could think about was how much talent there was among the participants. Everyone’s game was different. Some featured 2D graphics, others basic 3D designs.

One of my favorites was Dorothy & Elena, a visual novel with 2.5D traversal around a cylindrical world. It's a very neat way to use space in a game. I couldn’t care too much for the story, though. The developers of Dorothy ended up winning the game jam.

Our game, Hoppy Holidays, was ranked second in visual design, fourth in engagement (from the music, I assume, there’s no music-specific category), and seventh overall. Out of eighteen submissions, this isn’t too bad in my book.

My gaming story continues

We were all happy about how our game performed despite its shortcomings. After a short break, we decided to informally create our own little indie game studio. As of this writing, it remains untitled.

We’re currently brainstorming our next big idea. This time, with more time, resources, and knowledge from our jam experience. We’re dreaming big, which is nice, but I don’t expect us to create anything groundbreaking for a while.

But I’m glad to have participated in my first game jam. It was a great breeding ground for raw creativity. Seeing everyone come together, create together, and have a (semi) finished product is a neat thing.

We initially made plans to go back and refurbish our Hoppy Holidays game. I don’t think our developers will return to it anytime soon.

Thanks to the GDEX guys who hosted the event. Appreciate you bringing all of us misfits together to make something we’ll remember for a while. It’s people like you who help enable us creatives to get off our asses and make things we enjoy.

It wasn’t just about the game but the friends we made along the way

I didn’t know what to expect when I entered the game jam. I was nervous about who my teammates would be, how our ideas might combine or clash, and whether or not we could see a unified vision through to the end.

But I was so relieved once our team had our first meeting. Instantly, I was energized by the different personalities of our group. We all worked well together, ebbing and flowing, giving and taking.

Moving into the future, I have some new friends from across the U.S. and Canada that I can count on to make another game with. I think that’s a wonderful thing.

Takeaways for future jammers

Joining a game jam will:

Expand your social circle (online friends definitely count)

Allow you to explore more of your creativity. Working alongside others will, at times, wear you down, but you’ll build back better together.

Leave you with a remarkable sense of accomplishment. Although I only made the music for the game, being there on a call with the team for all of the major milestones was a rewarding process.

So consider joining one!

A simple Google search can reveal local and online jams that are happening now or are upcoming.

Itch.io is a great resource for all things indie game related. Have a look around and find a game jam that appeals to you.

Thank you for reading my story. Happy jamming!

You can play our game, Hoppy Holidays, here.

You may check out my recommendation for more thoughts on personal development (and gaming, in this case).

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