When Life Hits You (UKIE Student Game Jam 2018) – Postmortem
The UKIE Student Game Jam is organised by the Ukie (UK Interactive Entertainment) and is held every year across universities in the UK. Therefore, when our lecturer first approached my class with the chance to participate, I was thrilled to take part with my own team of five. I chose three developers, including myself, and two designers, all from the Game courses at the University of East London.
This was the second time I was in charge of a team during a Game Jam and my third Jam overall.
The challenge for the Jam was to have a finished game by the end of the 30 hours at our disposal. To do so, I got in touch with the mentor assigned by Ukie for the team, Jeff, a Senior from Mediatonic, who supported us and gave us confidence when we needed it, which really helped during the concept phase and the final rush.
Day 1
Day 1 – concept and prototyping:
The first day went fairly well… the only set back was the pizza being delivered late.
We followed the plan and I made sure everybody understood and communicated with others.
Everyone had a role assigned, based on my knowledge of their talents. All were chosen for their reliability and ability to deliver.
Day 2
Day 2 – polish:
During the second day
We had a finished game by the end. Not a good one, but definitely finished.
From this Jam, I learnt to rely on my teammates, how to improvise and quickly fix issues and unseen design challenges.
You can find my team on Twitter following #UkieGameJam2018 and @DipoMaster