How to Fail at Game Jams 

Remember, game jams are...(fill in the blank)

Did you know, 99% of GameJam devs quit right before making GTA V in 2 days?

how to fail a game jam: 1. eat the game jam

One more thing: If you truly wish to fail at game jam, you want to avoid making novel and bizarre gameplay design decisions. Your best bet is to fail is by making mistakes that have been done countless times before, or just not trying anything new at all. That way there's nothing new to learn.

"You have lots of time!" As a procrastinator, I feel personally called out.

0:36 Hah, jokes on you, my sleep cycle is always destroyed

that ending part was super real game jam games that are like 'yeah the stupid loser judges didnt understand my vision so im gonna make this into a real game to rub it in their face and then take months to deliver nothing'

Did a solo gamejam last month, with absolutely 0 experience in a godot. Finished in time and got 13 (or 19) place out of 50. Just pick a godot and reduce the scope of your game to a fun level.

These vids are so helpful. I am going to make games that are horrible and then call them Triple A quality, which will be technically right.

This video would've been better with multiple endings, a skill tree, a secret unlockable boss, 60 more levels and 2 more playable characters but I'm sure those will come in the full version, right?

The fact that this appeared in my feed 2 days before the deadline of a hack jam I’m in is certainly fate

i love how the last third of the video went... its exactly what happens in game jams! (i guess so is the entire rest of the video, but that part was the one that made me laugh!)

For the longest time "in the end" was a motivational song for me. Wasnt till recently someone told me how weird that was

The way to fail a gamejam is to give up or not sign up in the first place! I love gamejams and they're just a great way to make something.. anything with a deadline you don't set for yourself. I've learned so much and met some great people through gamejams. Great video! Glad I found your channel you make fun vids!

As a game design major this also applies to homework assignments where I have to make video games.

Nothing better than a channel that gives me all the wrong information.

Finally I understand the concept of game jams. Thanks for clarifying.

I just joined a jam called the isou jam which is a sorta sillly title, I have no idea how to pronounce it, but anyway hopefully I will be able to apply these tactics there. Especially the asking the host to submit late one, i'm sure they love that. My favorite joke was the "The purpose of game jams is to help you fail more often", very good :)

I HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE CALLED OUT IN MY LIFE

2:24 I came into this video expecting a slimekeep reference, and still laughed when I realised he was dissing slimekeep

This might help with the jam, thanks :) Looking forward to how it goes

"There's nothing on my mind." Artindi is no thoughts, head empty. Only watermelon.

"I know you clicked on this video expecting me to just talk about scope creep the whole time." How the fug, did... you? ..... Impressive I must say...

I personally think this video is good enough to make it into a feature length film and try to make it big on Steam, I mean Hollywood

"trust your internet connection" feels a bit too real from you 🤣🤣🤣

can't wait for you to make the documentary :3

Loving this series! It feels like the game dev equivalent of the channel "Terrible Writing Advice."

I actually made a game that took me a week to make with all your guides to help me Thanks for all the helpful advice My friends hated it☺️

I love how 1/170 of this video is a Linkin Park reference. Every video ever should have at least that amount of it.

I love this series, and I think it’s really helpful as I’m getting into game development! Thank you so much for making this series, and you’re amazing!

I joined a 1 hour game jam. 5 hours later (because its not serious) I made a really cool game I'm proud of. You'd be surprised what you can do in such short time. Keep going

Perfect, just what I needed 5 days before the NGJ jam! I will follow your instructions, wish me luck!

Reminds me of my first Ludum Dare entry back in 2011: Trying to make a point and click adventure game from scratch in 72 hours, we spent 2 days on making a simple engine then tried to cram in everything at the last second. We then decided to finish the game one day when we have the time. 13 years later we still think about it randomly every once in a while

another good idea i haven't seen talked about is reading the rules!! understanding what the game jam is actually about will only hurt your creative juices from flowing!! and if you submit something that doesn't follow guidelines, then thats on the organizers for trying to keep you from winning. you should always ignore the prompts and start your game a week early to get a leg up on the competition

As someone who just finished a game jam game about a week or two ago... yeah... especially the parts about destroying your sleep schedule. Lol. (Tho I actually don't think I did all that bad with mine tbh, but I definitely *do* have a lot of things to fix up. Mostly just QoL stuff)

Alright, very helpful! I’ve never been in a game jam, but it looks fun! I’ll look out for upcoming ones! :D

Could you make a fighting game one? I really love your series and think it’d be really helpful (and funny) if you made one since I’m trying to get into serious game development and I love fighting games. Thanks for reading this, and you’re amazing!

A fun episode could be one about doing everything yourself, like I mean everything. Who needs free 3D models from the internet or free tilemap packs to kickstart your game off. How could it possibly be unique then? Obviously you must do all the art, music, programming and playtesting to assure that you maintain your absolute game direction. You wouldn't want other people with unique ideas to "contribute" to the project because your very important game direction would be lost!

The best way to fail is to go to an in person game jam and realize you don't know anyone there and end up working alone when everyone else is in a team.

I never thought of it that way before! Can't wait to fail my next jam!

if the reward aint moneys, i am eating the game jam

1:13-1:32 sequence made me smile a lot

Just in time for the Ludum Dare game jam, good luck everyone!

This is the best channel for under five min videos

If you do something, anything in this two days, it isn't fail, knowledge for this short days may by usefully in next projects

Yo, just failed my first GameJam! Thanks!

The ending was genius

Great video! keep going! I just started watching this series, and it's one of the most fun series I have watched in a while! The one complaint I have is that the video's are quite short, but that's not a huge complaint since you're not the only youtuber I watch. (Is saying it's too short a complaint or compliment?)

dang. I've already been bound to succeed at failure from the start. Guess I came very prepared for all this.

This hits hard... It's funny, because it's true. ... I still felt it deep, DEEP down. Hitting hard!

Not sure what's worse, failing at a regular game jam or failing the Epic Megajam where you have months to prep and a week to develop...

excellent video friend! loved it!

Thank you for video

This feels a bit like CGP Grey… I LIKE IT! 👏

Will be using all of this for ISOU

I think I have the opposite issue with scope. I do just fine with the small scope of game jams. I absolutely love the Ludum Dare Compo. Really helps me focus. The problem is then taking my little game jam project (which might even rank reasonably well in a category or 2) and moving it past that. For me they all pretty much just stay little game jam projects, and it's not like these are among the larger scope game jam projects in the first place - there are some *really* impressive jammers out there. They mostly do what I had intended them to for purposes of the jam itself, and I find it tough to find a place to take them from there.

Give me the feature length film! I want it! now! (I'm glad to be 50% of the good comments) You better don't forget about it!

If only there was an upcoming game jam I could put all these failure practices to use in in order to fail!!

Just in time!

God damn it, that scoop creep call out 😡

What's the best way to fail at strawberry jams?

Best video on RU-vid...

OF COURSE YOU PUT THE WATERMELON IN AGAIN LOL

the ending gag fooled me for a moment

or you could just eat the thing

Nailed it.

I tried doing a gamejam once and just kinda got busy with school and couldnt really find time to work on it. I definately want to join and complete one some day.

Everyone knows working on a creative project is best approached while in a state of half-asleep, caffeine-fueled delirium.

Ironically updating software was a big reason I failed and decided to never do game jams again

Jokes on you, caffeine doesn't even work on me!

I don't mind wasting some time just listening to you, I like your voice, so I guess that wasn't a waste

who let bro cook 💀💀

I saw your ISOU Game jam on the discord but if I'm bein honest, I don't know what game jams are or how they work and came here to find out! Unfortunately I learned nothing and failed to learn how a game jam works.

The way to win any game jam is to send malware.

You forgot an important point : missing the point of the jam "sure that's aa fine game you've made there..but what does it had to do with the jam's theme ?"

I've been watching your videos for a while now and I only just realised that you don't have 500 thousand subscribers, surely this is an error.

Just in time for Ludum Dare 55 huh?

I always make sure to pick the hardest tech stack I know the least about and I never produce anything. A mystery.

Just joined one, ready to fail

I absolutely agree! You should quit your day-job and make this into a full 2 hour film! It will succeed. Add all kinds of things you have planned to the script and make sure the script does things that has never done before!

PLEASE do how to fail at rhythm games

why do I find it so HARD for me to finish a project that needs more time then a day :(

Nice

I’m so ready to fail!

One more big thing: Get a team. It's way harder to get de-motivated and say "nah, this makes no sense" when there's someone else relying on you.

> " It is ok, I guess " 02:15

Thanks for posting this right before I'm about to spend all weekend working on a game jam. Haha. Time to maybe rethink some of my plans... JK

Thanks for the tutorial! I will definitely use these tips in the ISOU Game Jam!

Funnily enough, a GameDev I know already does all of this, and won several Game Jams xD

you are never a waste of time

I participated into a game peanut butter once

your character looks like an adult pajama sam

Omg he actually did it

You should definitely make your scope video 1 hour long :P

I dont need a game jam to lose sleep to scope creep : D

im guilty of making basic game mechanics from scratch for a game jam. Its what ive done literally *every single time.* I should really just make a few genre templates so I can have something workable to start with.

At the time of writing this comment, Ludum Dare 55 is in three hours. Let the failure commence!!

Thank god I hate all the winning that I've been doing

It’s okay… I guess.

Noice