2015-FEB-14 Game Jam Guide

What is a Game Jam?
A Game Jam is an event where a group of people get together over a set period of time to create a game. There is usually a set criteria the game must meet such as a theme or platform but this isn't always the case.

It is a great opportunity to get some actual game development experience no matter your ability, learn new skills and get a finished project to put in your portfolio.

What's the topic?
To make it as accessible as possible for participants of all skill levels, we have decided to make a bunch of topics, which can be either game mechanics, specific ideas and quotes among others. The way theme selection will work: We do not expect to make big games in 36 hours, and neither should you. Rather, it is likely that we will produce a bunch of mini-games and then combine them after the event into a single game and get it released.
 * 1) Each team draws a topic from a "drawing hat"
 * 2) They can go and develop a really small game around the topic they drew (if you're not experienced, we recommend your first game to be really small . Better to finish a couple of mini-games, than to end up with a half finished game and feel disappointed.) or they can draw another topic. They still keep the previous topic as well.
 * 3) You can draw as many topics as you'd like, but your game will have to reflect all of them. If you want more creative freedom, draw less topics at a time, but if you want to produce a really strange and novel game, draw more and combine them.
 * 4) Once you finish your first game, you put back your topics to the "drawing hat" and draw new ones for the next one.

Location
The game jam location is the Anderson Room in the Heriot-Watt University library. The room is located on the top floor. To get there, go up the stairs to the top floor. Turn left and go through the double doors. The Anderson room is the one directly in front of you.

Schedule
You can see the schedule for the event on the right.

Awards
At the end of the event, we will be handing out some awards for teams and individuals. We will all decide on who wins them.

Where does the art come from?
We have purchased an asset pack for this game jam. If none of your team members can produce art assets, you can use the pack provided. Otherwise, you can produce art yourself, or combine the two.

We will provide a link to the asset pack in the Facebook event page on the day of the game jam.

What skills do I need?
It would help to familiarise yourself with Unity and its interface. However, you'll be learning a lot of stuff as you go along: the majority of us have little to no experience making games so everyone will be learning things as well.

Have a go at a tutorial or two about the roles you want to fulfill beforehand but don't be afraid to be looking things up and Googling how to do specific things on the day.

We have chosen a theme and guidelines for this Game Jam to make it as easily accessible as possible for people of all skill levels so please come along and learn to make games with us.

Tutorials covering the basics:

- Interface: http://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/modules/beginner/live-training-archive/editor-basics

- GameObjects: http://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/modules/beginner/live-training-archive/gameobjects

- Minimal infinite runner tutorial: http://catlikecoding.com/unity/tutorials/runner/

What should I bring?
For our Game Jam you will need to bring your laptop and charger, paper and pens will help too.

Please come prepared with the following software/equipment (depending on what you want to do):

- Everyone needs Unity (http://unity3d.com/) and the Android SDK (http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing/index.html?pkg=tools) to run and work on the games

- Unity touch plugin will help for testing your games using touch input (http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/UnityRemote4.html)

- We will be using Git (https://windows.github.com/) for version control of the games and will be using Google Drive for art, sound and documents

- If you plan to do any programming have your development environment set up for working with Unity and C#

- If you want to create art assets or animations then whatever you need to draw and digitize your drawings

- If you want to make music or sounds then you should have some form of software for producing and exporting your work. Note due to our Game Jam being held in the library you will need headphones

- If you want to come up with game ideas, stories, design levels etc. then a pen and paper and someway of recording ideas on your laptop is all you need

If you have any equipment you think will be useful to have during the Game Jam then please bring it (if you could list what you are bringing that would be great) - eg. coloured pens/pencils, compact document scanner, microphone... etc.

Food and drinks
Participants will get catering tokens for meals. Note, that the choice of food will be limited to Cafe Brio, as it's the only open outlet during the weekend. You will get tokens for a lunch and dinner on Saturday, and a breakfast and lunch on Sunday.

We have also arranged the following refreshments and snacks for the event: If you would rather bring your own food/drinks, feel free to do so.
 * Still mineral water
 * Sprite
 * Coke
 * Diet Coke
 * Energy drinks
 * Diet energy drinks
 * Walkers crisps
 * ASDA cereal bars

Note the following restrictions imposed by the library:
 * All drinks must have a lid.
 * No eating in the library room. If you want to have a snack, you'll need to go to the library cafe.