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🥑 The Game Jam Worksheet

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A checklist of steps for solo game devs participating in 48-hour game jams.

However, feel free to adapt to different team sizes and game jam lengths.

Before the game jam

You have 48 hours to make an awesome game.

But let’s be honest. You aren’t working 48 hours.

You need to sleep – optimally 8 hours a night.

You need to eat something nutritious.

You need to go outside so your brain is happy.

You might have a job or family commitments. Don’t neglect them!

So open Google Calendar, and block out your non-dev time commitments.

Here’s how my schedule would look:

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Once you’re done, count the number of hours available to you.

Given the schedule above, I have 19 hours and 15 minutes. Heck, let’s just round down to 19 hours.

You should do the same! Check off the following tasks once you’re done:

I blocked out my non-dev time commitments in Google Calendar.

I counted the # of hours available for actual game development.

Oh, and this goes without saying – you should review the game jam rules:

I reviewed the game jam rules. (Example.)

The stages of game development

What follows is all the stages of making a game.

Given the time available to you, you should allocate time blocks for each of the stages below.

I scheduled time for the Brainstorm stage.

I scheduled time for the Mockup stage.

I scheduled time for the First Playable Game stage.

I scheduled time for the Vertical Slice stage.

I scheduled time for the Content stage.

I scheduled time for the Polish stage.