A Game a Day Jam post-mortem

[fluffrabbit]

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When I first registered for FGD, in the grand old days before I knew where I stood on a lot of things, I was trying to dig myself into as much game development as possible. Part of that effort included my participation in a game jam on itch.io known as the A Game a Day Jam. It was non-competitive and lasted a good several days. (I do not remember how long it actually ran.) The goal, as you have probably inferred, was to make a game a day.

Despite initial success with C++ and SDL, I found myself in a black hole. I got no feedback on my progress. This was probably because none of my fellow participants knew how to compile anything, and as I did not yet know how to cross-compile for Windows, they could not clicky-click. The experience was rather sour, so I dropped out after the first few days.

I'm keeping the code to myself. I was going to keep it on GitHub, but the cost:benefit ratio was too high. Nobody would ever play the games, but some n00b might use the code as a foundation for shovelware, and I don't believe that copyleft licensing is adequate protection against that. I make my code PD because software licenses are a joke.

Furthermore, if I had a framework that could make a game as easy as 1-2-3, I would sell it. As is, my libraries have bugs and shortcomings that limit their immediate usability. I do have a sound library that could benefit from bug reports, but when the jam was going on it was too young to be useful. I still don't know if I'll open source it because it currently doesn't support looping though it does have Emscripten-related trade secrets inside. That's not a great combination for people who want something to make Linux software out of.

TL;DR I'm a game developer; I don't work at KDE, Mozilla, or any of the other hippie places where code quality is more important than shiny.

There are philosophical implications to all of this, and I would love to talk about this stuff if you can keep an open mind. I will answer all of your questions.

[Lyberta]

Deleted.

[fluffrabbit]

software licenses are a joke.

Then patent it! :P

Where I come from, the legal system is a last resort. Do you know how many millions, or at least tens of thousands of app developers there are in China? They will shovel their shovels down to the handles, and I can't touch them, not that I would even know if I were being ripped off.

[dulsi]

If you didn't get feedback in the game jam you should have come back here and asked people take a look. I wouldn't really expect much feedback until the end of the jam. If you are doing a game a day, most people aren't going to have the time to try out other games during the duration of the jam. Did the jam have a lot of people entering? If not maybe you should try a different jam or just post a game here. In fact I did look at the initial code you put on github but the Redneck game didn't appear playable yet.

Nothing I can do about your concern about people ripping off your game. I enjoy sharing my creations even if not too many people play them. If someone stole my game, I'd do what I can to get it removed but I wouldn't let some bad actor from preventing me from sharing my creations.

[fluffrabbit]

If you are doing a game a day, most people aren't going to have the time to try out other games during the duration of the jam.

That's what the logical part of my brain said, but the irrational part of my brain got pissed off.

Did the jam have a lot of people entering?

I believe there were about 5 others.

In fact I did look at the initial code you put on github but the Redneck game didn't appear playable yet.

That's an interesting perspective. The current form of the game has no character animation. It has sound, using the aforementioned library, but there is only one sound effect. Did you get it to compile?

Nothing I can do about your concern about people ripping off your game. I enjoy sharing my creations even if not too many people play them. If someone stole my game, I'd do what I can to get it removed but I wouldn't let some bad actor from preventing me from sharing my creations.

That's a very optimistic attitude, and one that comes from a different place. I take it you don't develop proprietary games.

[dulsi]

In fact I did look at the initial code you put on github but the Redneck game didn't appear playable yet.

That's an interesting perspective. The current form of the game has no character animation. It has sound, using the aforementioned library, but there is only one sound effect. Did you get it to compile?

I didn't end up downloading it. When I looked at the code, it didn't seem to do anything yet. You removed the link the next time I checked.

That's a very optimistic attitude, and one that comes from a different place. I take it you don't develop proprietary games.

Actually I do have credit in a proprietary game. That was a while ago at this point.

[fluffrabbit]

The code was up for a few days and had several days of games. I followed the rules and made sure everything worked within the span of each day. One can squeeze a lot of functionality into very few lines, so maybe you overlooked something. But at this point, I think it's best not to give it away.

Actually I do have credit in a proprietary game. That was a while ago at this point.

Cool.