Game jams: the overlooked media by illustrators
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
If you are a programmer or game designer, game jams have most likely been one of your first experiences into making games with your peers. This however is an illustration blog so you are probably an illustrator like me or just an art enthusiast and have never heard of game jams before. This is a real shame because game jams are the ideal place for illustrators to flex their skills, introduce themselves to a new industry and they can lead to high quality career opportunities.
What are game jams?
Indie puzzle game ‘Baba is you’ by Arvi Teikari originally made for the Nordic Game Jam 2017
Game jams are events, local or globally, where participants in group or by themselves can try and make a game from scratch around a given theme in a limited time frame. Although the time is generally limited to 48 hours, game jams can range anywhere from 24 hours to even a few weeks. At the beginning of the jam you will be given a theme that you build your game around. Everyone has the same amount of time, even if you work alone.
Most game jams are run independently and are just for fun, but in some cases you can actually win a few prizes. So if actively competing is more your speed, those can provide you with some incentive to participate.
A lot of game designers will use game jams as a way of prototyping. A few games will eventually turn into full-fledged games. Some examples of games that started as a game jam game but are now indie classics are: Celeste, Baba is You, Hollow Knight, Dicey Dungeons and even Minecraft.
Why would I join a game jam as an illustrator?
There are a lot of reasons! So to make it easily digestible, I have created some bullet points for you
Like I said, first of all, it's a lot of work but a lot of fun too. At the end of it all you made something that didn't exist yet 48 hours ago. It can be deeply satisfying to know you made something that other's now can enjoy and have visceral reactions too.
There is a vacuum for good art in the video game industry. They need good artists like you to fill that vacuum. So there’s a lot of potential work up for grabs.
You now have an interactive portfolio piece you can show off and even bring with you to events. People love interaction! It can be a conversation starter and it shows great versatility.
You made potential friendships for life. Making games together in such a short time frame can be grueling but it creates deep bonds with the people who share the experience with you. Good friendships and connections can open doors in creative industries.
You can now cater your work to the video game industry! Little game jams have known to get picked up and go viral really fast. It might just land you a really good job.
You learned a lot of new tools along the way. Maybe you learned to work a little in Unity, maybe you learned more soft skills of working in a group. Who knows, but you definitely learned something!
Maybe after all that you are still not convinced. Let me share my own personal experience with participating in game jams, and what it did for my career.
What if I haven't made games before and don't know where to start?
Jam game ‘Shutterpunk’ by Brad’s games, Romain Rope and ObviouslyASquid made for the Hardcore Punk Jam #4
The majority of people will try and team up with others. If you don't know anyone to enter with, join the discord server of the game jam. They will have channels where you can form a team with strangers who are also looking for teammates. Usually a team will have a programmer, a game designer and an artist. Sometimes you have audio designers and writers join in the fun too. Each role is responsible for a small part of the game, making the heavy load more bearable for everyone. You are a part of a group though, so most decisions are a joint effort.
So you have your team but now what? The actual beauty of game jams, is you just start and learn as you go while participating. Nobody is expecting you make the perfect looking game in 48 hours. Even if you don't end up finishing in time or your game isn't exactly playable, it's just supposed to be a fun little experiment to show off your craft. Make sure you always submit your game though even if you didn't finish. After the clock has run out, everyone can join in and play and critiquing each others games. Getting feedback is so valuable, so you don’t want to miss out on that.
Small caveat as well: if you really don’t feel like learning to make a video game but you still want to enter, you can always enter with a board game. Most game jams will accept a physical entry. You just take pictures and provide a pdf with the instructions so people can play the game.
Katjepult
Before I started my journey as self-employed, I found myself without any confidence that I could ever be an artist. I would mope and lament over the fact that I didn't know how to start getting my name out there, let alone find a job.
This is Katjepult in it’s original form backin 2021
So one day in 2021 Bradley Smith suggested that we should enter a game jam together, just for fun to get me out of my funk. I could make the art and he would program and design the game. It was going to be practice for the both of us, since I had never made any game assets before and he didn't have much programming experience back then since he's mainly a game designer. I got to pick the game jam I wanted to enter and a few days later I was thrown in without knowing what I was getting myself into.
It was a rollercoaster ride, I can tell you that much. 48 hours fly by before you know it so we had to be able to make quick decisions. That being said we scrapped our fist 10 ideas because those ideas are most likely also in the heads of the other participants. So we tried to think outside the box as much as possible. I landed on the idea of making something out of embroidery. At the time I was well into embroidery (still am) and I had never seen any game trying to make game assets out of real hand embroidery. To this day, and it's been 3 years, I don't know how I managed to make all the assets in time. Embroidery gave our little game a little bit of an interesting edge.
The recently updated version of Katjepult now playable for free on itch.io
We managed to get most of the game working by the end but not everything went according to plan. It had bugs for sure. But it was done and cute and it was ours. 'Katjepult' was brought into existence! I had managed to make my first video game ever. So cool, so proud. It was exactly what I needed to boost my confidence.
Want to give ‘Katjepult’ a try yourself? Click here
The one where the pink embroidered kitty goes viral
A screenshot of the article ‘28 Indie Games You'll Be Delighted To Have Discovered’ on Kotaku by John Walker where Katjepult got featured.
After the game ended, both me and Brad just moved on. It was over and done, I felt better so mission accomplished. We didn't even post about it on Twitter at first. And then out of nowhere it got picked up by Wholesome Games and Kotaku and it went kind of viral for awhile. People seem to love our silly little game. We were even pitching to publishers to see if it was at all viable as a full-fledged game. The game had potential and I was soaring with confidence. 'Katjepult' had by doing so already fulfilled it's goal set by Bradley.
Shortly afterwards though I got contacted by Ian Masters from Flick Solitaire asking if I was interested in making art out of embroidery for his card game. And so I landed my first ever full paid job as an illustrator and all because of participating in a game jam. It set me up to make the jump to self-employment. It's crazy but I owe a lot to that little game.
A screenshot of the deck I embroidered for Flick Solitaire. You can download Flick Solitaire for free on the AppStore and Google Play
In the end the hype around 'Katjepult' died down and we focused back on our paid opportunities. That cute little pink embroidered cat has been waiting for us for 3 years but it never fully left our heads. As of a few weeks we have been working on it again, bringing it even to events like The Art Department in Eindhoven while I was part of the art market there. People got such a kick out of it playing it, which probably made me more sales in the end too. That pink little cat is a gift that truly keeps giving.
Do game jams tickle your interest?
If you, after reading this blog post want to give it a go yourself, I have provided some links for you to set you on your game jam way. Some of the most known and biggest game jams out there are Global Game Jam and Ludum Dare. Both are run several times a year. So if you just missed it, fret not the next one is already in a few months.
https://ldjam.com/
https://globalgamejam.org/
Can't wait that long and you want to give a go right away? Head over to Itch or Indie Game Jams. There you can find all the game jams that are happening. You can easy scroll through and find a jam that fit your interests and time.
https://itch.io/jams
https://www.indiegamejams.com/
I hope you give game jams a chance!
Much love,
C
