I ranked 5th in the Indie Dev Game Jam #4!

🔗 Saturday, 20 July 2024

By Cariad Eccleston • 👋 @cariad@indiepocalypse.social • ✉️ cariad@cariad.earth

I wrote the theme tune, sang the theme tune…

I participated in the Indie Dev Game Jam #4¹ last week, and my game was ranked 5th² of 71 by a jury of my peers! I’m chuffed enough with that!

The theme was “Escape” and, since it was only a 72-hour jam, I went for the immediately obvious “escape from an exploding space ship” idea and ran with it; hence “Oh No, the Space Ship is Exploding” was born.

Now, outside of the context of the jam, the game isn’t great. There’s only one level, with no procedural generation of new content. There’s no replay value. And the countdown timer is punishing. But the way I figured it, I was going to be lucky to get the judges' attention for even a few seconds, let alone a minute, so I wanted to get the gist across quickly and have the game beatable within two minutes. And given the number of games to review, it was pretty unlikely that anyone would have time to come back and play mine again, so why waste time even making it replayable?

If I’m going to be proud of anything, it’s the graphics and audio. I drew every tile set and sprite during the jam myself. I recorded every sound effect from my own voice and bits-and-pieces on desk during the jam myself. I wrote and recorded the music during the jam myself.

Does it hurt that I was voted down for my shitty graphics and audio? Not really; I can take the criticism.

But am I bitter that folks ranked higher than I did because they downloaded asset packs drawn and composed by professionals before the jam started? Fuck yes. I’m resentful as all hell that jams encourage folks to make their own assets then penalise them if they do, and I’ll admit it.

But, look: bitterness is ugly, so I’ll leave you with this final plea: Make your own fucking game assets. Don’t panic and grab an asset pack. Have some bloody confidence in yourself.

“But I’m not an artist!” you say. You never will be with that attitude, either.

“But I can’t make music!” you complain. Learn, then. You didn’t know how to wipe your own arse last year, but look at you now.

“But I’ll never win if I have to do everything!” Don’t win, then. It’s a challenge, not a job.

But do, please, grab the opportunity to make something you can be proud of. Something you crafted with your own hands. Something that’s beautifully, uniquely yours. That’s far more interesting than winning.