game-jam-chat

[near ice]

I’ve been away for a little while. Has there been any news on MegaJam?

[maiden loom]

nothing official yet, but soon ™️

[maiden loom]

https://tenor.com/view/its-happening-gif-23353691

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/incoming-2022-epic-megajam?sessionInvalidated=true

I will of course probably be participating and LFG shortly

[plush trellis]

Cant wait, itll be my first game jam :)

[civic dock]

I posted in #unreal-news to make sure everyone knows it's coming up.

I wonder why they decided to announce before the page goes live. Maybe just to give people a better heads up so they can plan for the event.

[crisp gate]

curious about it, how long do they usually run for?

[carmine kindle]

a week

[worn hamlet]

Exactly that! We received feedback last year that there wasn't enough notice for those that have to schedule around work or day-to-day commitments, and we wanted to do better this year 🙂

[placid anvil]

Hello. Can Russians participate and receive prizes if they win? I need to know in advance! I want to take 2 weeks off for competitions.

[maiden loom]

so I'm not a lawyer and you can take this response with a pinch of salt, but to the best of my knowledge under current US sanctions, private Russian citizens might not strictly be eligible to use the Unreal Engine for commercial reasons, but otherwise Epic is not currently restricting access to anybody.

I'll prod some people at Epic and see if I can get a proper answer for you in the meantime.

[drifting pumice]

judging by the list of restrictions from the last megajam, I'd say it would be reasonable to assume that Russia will be added to that list this year

Without limitation of the foregoing, the Contest is not open to individuals in the province of Quebec, Brazil, or Italy. In addition, the Contest is not open to individuals in Belarus, the Central African Republic, the Crimea region, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cuba, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Myanmar (Burma), North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Syria.

[placid anvil]

ambershee - I think it's a provocateur. The user does not have any role in the discord. We will wait for an answer from the official representatives!

[maiden loom]

not to worry, there are people looking into it, so hopefully we'll have an answer soon

sometimes takes a day or two

[hazy ice]

I am very excited because this will be my first game Jam participation 🤩

What was last year megajam theme?

[maiden loom]

the theme last year was 'Running out of Space'

[steel stone]

https://tenor.com/view/spaceballs-jam-jammed-lick-shocked-gif-12460549

[hazy ice]

Cool

[wintry skiff]

oh man I remember that

one of my first jams

I was messing around with buggy lumen stuff

lol

[mellow atlas]

I want to join the jam to improve as a system designer or game designer in general if anyone wants to team up! Lmk in a DM!

[jade sonnet]

Not sure if this is the best place to post this, but I think there should be some sort of community event around the free marketplace assets Epic does every month.

I think it would be really good for practice and to help people learn about stuff they wouldn't normally use.

Maybe it doesn't really count as a game jam? Maybe it's a bad idea to try to start this right before the MegaJam (whoops...)?

But what's done is done I guess. Check it out if you're interested in group learning.

https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/unreal-engine-5-free-assets-challenge/618401

[maiden loom]

they did do a jam a while back based around using marketplace assets, but tbh, most people hated it and participation was quite low

[jade sonnet]

I think it's a lot harder challenge because it can be pretty difficult to adapt someone else's assets, but if that's true then how does that reflect on the marketplace...

That's why I think there should be something to help people get acquainted with how to approach using what's on the marketplace.

[maiden loom]

most people do game jams because they want to build a game, not wrangle marketplace assets (which is time consuming and not really building a game)

I also don't feel like a game jam is really going to 'get people acquainted' with integrating marketplace content tbh, especially since it's a different process for just about everything, and more often a pain in the ass

[jade sonnet]

Agreed, it's not a game jam it's a challenge to use assets, but I wasn't really sure where to post it. Still though, if using marketplace assets is only seen as being a pain in the ass (which it is), then how can we reduce that pain?

That's why I think it's important for the community to put out more discussion on how to use the marketplace correctly, how developers really want/need assets to be built, etc.

Don't buy random things and think it's going to make your game for you.
Don't take over my whole project with your asset.

Anyway, don't want to keep forcing a low-interest discussion in the chat. So, I'll keep doing what I'm doing, but I think more perspectives from more people than just me putting content out there can only be a good thing for this issue.

[tough cypress]

Prizes will be announced in August 8?

[maiden loom]

most likely; rules, prizes, categories etc

[tough cypress]

Can we use assets from Marketplace?

How was in previous year?

[maiden loom]

so long as you declare them, yes

you can find the rules for last year easily enough, the rules are likely to be very similar this year

[tough cypress]

Ok

[zenith needle]

oh there's prices? i was thinking on joining one just for the lols

Any idea on the date for the new one?

[jade sonnet]

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/incoming-2022-epic-megajam

[molten mauve]

Who's ready for MegaJam? UE5 BP/C++ developer is looking for interesting acquaintances.

[scenic forge]

Hello i'm with a group of 7+ team members looking for someone specialized in Animation Blueprint, Skeleton Retargeting, Blendspace, IK Bones, and Character Animation Implementation for a Game Jam for Magic Girl Game Jam.

DM if interested!

[placid anvil]

EPIC is there an answer to my question?

[steep ledge]

This isn't the place to ask that question. This isn't an official Epic server.

Multiple people answered you.

[drifting pumice]

the official rules are coming in 3 days

[stable kiln]

ur in luck, russia is planning on making its own game engine

great glory to the motherland!

[placid anvil]

Is it Monday, the 8th?

[maiden loom]

yeah, the official rules will drop on the 8th - I tried to get an answer before then but nothing came back

[tough cypress]

They'll call it Nash Engine (Our Engine translation)😂

[tough cypress]

Chances are super low that russians get eligible to participate

[steep ledge]

Isn't this what #game-jam-lfg is for? Comment is gone 🤷‍♂️

[gaunt jackal]

Jam Info?

[haughty heart]

@tough cypress while epic didn't say that, you implied it by saying "It isn't something you do after work".
I know you don't work for epic, but I was just making a point with my comment. point being it doesn't matter who says that, I'm not going to skip.

[obtuse sapphire]

Hey everyone, i don't know much about the epic mega jam, but from what im gathering it's a contest to create the "best game"? Well, i am looking to assemble a small team. I am a newer developer learning unreal. I have a MASSIVE open world rpg in mind.

[haughty heart]

it is basically: "you have a week, you get a theme. Make the best game you possibly can that fits the given theme."

as for groups, go to #game-jam-lfg .
Finally, MASSIVE cannot be done in a week, look at some of the previous jam entries on youtube or something. Manage your expectations.

[lunar pewter]

Yea game jams also help teach newer developers Scope and what is possible in a given time limit

[obtuse sapphire]

qoute i said i knew nothing about it, but ye i get it, that's pretty chill.

[haughty heart]

I know, I'm explaining it to you

[obtuse sapphire]

ye ik u good

I'd be interested in doing that, but i think i'm more interested in creating this game

[maiden loom]

then you're in the wrong place - but also I feel you should probably step back and take a look at the credits for your average open world RPG and perhaps question how achievable your goals actually are.

if your average game in the genre has a team of 100+ professionals who worked full time on that project for multiple years, how likely is it that you yourself can pull that off?

[stable kiln]

well at least it isnt an MMO

any average game gets made by a big team, doesnt matter what genre

path of exile has a fairly small team compared to battlefield

[haughty heart]

but the thing is, all members have at least a few years of professional experience + few years of development time and money

[stable kiln]

this is the same for every genre

[haughty heart]

yeah

[stable kiln]

rpg is doable... open world is doable ... massive is doable

now make the massive part any good is hard 😛

somehow i think he meant MMORPG.. thats a lil tricky

still doable if u pay for server

or have a high mem high cpu machine u dont mind running for a month or 2

and i dont pay for a high end server or push my powerbill for a jamgame

now if i got 300$ credit for AWS i would be more inclined to do any sort of MP

take the kite demo map,, drop a char in it, make an rpg system... host on AWS... done MMORPG

the odds more than 100ppl at a time loggin in on a jamgame is real small

so u wont need to have multiple servers to run the map

M its massive but not great M multiplayer would work O online would work cuz its not local RPG it wil work but its prolly not gunna be fun 😛

local coop is more easy to make fun... but not many ppl can play it

FPS where ppl host their own server ... the host needs to have his port forwarded and not many ppl have that

could have steam forward ur port but u need to be signed up for that

EGS is not open for every1 (or whatever the epic subsystem is called)

[stable kiln]

best way to add replay value is an online highscore... the rest has too many downsides

[maiden loom]

they have something like 140 people

[stable kiln]

they started pretty small

[maiden loom]

sure, but they're not small any more and neither is the game - it's not the fairest comparison

[stable kiln]

well BF still has more ppl working on it

also its one of the more popular rpgs

games made by a few ppl tend to make it less often too the popular list 😛

[maiden loom]

sure, but it's still a poor comparison on account of just how many people are involved and how long it's been around (over a decade)

if you want to look at smaller, indie games, you're probably looking at stuff like Rogue Legacy or Vampire Survivors - those are both games made by less than 10 people

neither are RPGs, but it's kinda the point

[stable kiln]

ahh i havent played those

[maiden loom]

I guess Stardew Valley is probably the closest you get to a popular small team RPG

[stable kiln]

well arena shooter or MMORPG both is hard to make fun on a small team in 3 days

but both can be made

[maiden loom]

maybe Undertale is a good example also

[stable kiln]

If you cant play and have fun if there is no other players expect your game to be unplayable for most ppl

ppl dont go to itch for coop or MP games... they go there for freaky broken crap 😛

so unless you plan doin a marketing campain after its done... look at itch : new&popular

thats ur target audience

lol

horror porn and memes

also other ppl that joined the jam are more likely to play ur game... so gamedev or gamejam jokes do fairly well

[scenic forge]

Anyone here who knows Animation Blueprint, Blendspace, and Sekeleton Retargeting interesed in a Game Jam?

[brazen surge]

What is everyone using for source control with game jams? I tried starting a new project on Github and it instantly ate up my entire 1GB Git LFS quota

[maiden loom]

I usually insist on Perforce

Git I've found to be problematic because of it's inherent branch/merging behaviour which does not like binaries at all

it's very non-programmer unfriendly

[lunar pewter]

Have you tried gitlab

[brazen surge]

No, I read that Git doesn't support locking for .uasset files. Is that not a problem?

[maiden loom]

I would consider that a huge problem, so much so that I would expect Git to be able to lock those files

[brazen surge]

I'm setting up Perforce on a Digital Ocean droplet and trying to figure out if it supports hosting repos for multiple game jams. This is really confusing

[brazen surge]

I abandoned trying Perforce because their license only allows 5 people for free, so you have to set up a separate server for every single game jam

Everyone I've talked to at an indie level seems to be using Git + LFS. Azure gives you supposedly unlimited storage for LFS

[marble coral]

you dont really need to setup a different server for every game jam. You can just manage your users and permissions on the folders.

[prisma galleon]

Make sure you get your ignore set up before the project, there's a 1 GB intermediate file that will ruin your push if you let it into even a single commit.

[marble coral]

that said... for small teams and game jams, I would still go with git + lfs

[prisma galleon]

Git LFS is free on Azure DevOps though, so it's worth a look.

[tawny tide]

is the itch page up yet for the megajam?

[maiden loom]

no - probably in a few hours

[tawny tide]

thanks

[brazen lagoon]

I am looking talented blueprinter (unreal ninja) to join me for MegaJam. dont be shy to write me.

[manic rivet]

hi, supposely today we are geting new info regarding the epic megajam right?

[marble coral]

think so

[gritty verge]

just checked no info on the blog and itch either

what time zone is epic games in?

[glass fossil]

I thought they were in PST. I have been checking all day as well.

[warm star]

Hey yall I need a team for this game jam. Who wants to join forces

[carmine kindle]

There's another channel #game-jam-lfg for finding people to do jams with. You'll have more luck there.

[maiden loom]

I guess we're not getting the rules etc today, unless it scheduled to go live after working hours or something

[worn hamlet]

We had to make some last minute changes to some of elements to the event page. The event page and rules will go live tomorrow 🙂 Thank you, and to everyone else for your patience with this! 🙂

[young night]

Did they mention what are the prizes for the epic mega jam this year??

[placid anvil]

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/incoming-2022-epic-megajam?sessionInvalidated=true
"The itch.io event page will go live, along with the Official Rules, on August 8, 2022, so buckle up and save the date; this one will leave you spinning! We look forward to seeing you there."

[placid anvil]

We are looking forward to it!😎

[shadow cliff]

oh sweet

[jade sonnet]

true, avoid saving unnecessary files, but also you can configure git to use HTTP 1.1 to avoid that error, if we're talking about Azure Dev Ops

[marble coral]

Did they release?

[narrow fern]

Hi all, any news on the itch.io megajam page?

[maiden loom]

going on what Skye said above, I'd expect it much later today (as much as 10-12 hours time)

[formal pasture]

I am starting to wonder if there was a mistake in the 2022 megajam announcement, like the itch.io page was supposed to show up on August 18th instead

Nevermind, I literally just scrolled up a bit and just saw what Skye said

[maiden loom]

probably last minute stuff to sort out with sponsors, or the rules, or whatever, it happens

I'd imagine it's like herding cats trying to put it all together

[civic dock]

I'll keep an eye out for the itch.io page and let everyone know when it's up.

[manic rivet]

is there any new info?

[maiden loom]

nope

[manic rivet]

ok

[civic dock]

Still not up yet. Be patient. I'm sure they're working on it.

[worn hamlet]

Less than an hour away folks!

[worn hamlet]

Hey folks! Registration for the 2022 Epic MegaJam is now open! https://itch.io/jam/2022-epic-megajam

[maiden loom]

officially first registrant ✊

[carmine kindle]

Wow, lots of interesting modifier categories

[civic dock]

I updated the channel topic with the itch.io link.

[prisma galleon]

The SideFX "Request this here" link for Houdini licenses seems to not be linked yet.

Otherwise... looking forward to this 🙂

[acoustic dirge]

is this anyone elses first game jam?

[plush trellis]

my first game jam

[acoustic dirge]

eyy nice, its so exciting

[plush trellis]

indeed, should be really fun 😄 Good luck to you! 😄

[prisma galleon]

Not my first by any means, but this will be my first shipped game with Unreal Engine. I'm nervous 😅

[acoustic dirge]

thanks! good luck to you to!

super new to using unreal but just excited to make something

haha you got this

[worn hamlet]

Thanks for the heads up! This has now been added 🙂

[prisma galleon]

That's the best mindset to be in. Just remember, above all else: there is no such thing as a bad entry. Even if it feels like everything went wrong and nothing worked out, just ship anything. The experience of seeing a game to the finish line does so much for you as a developer and you'll only grow in your skillset from there.

[acoustic dirge]

exactly! id be happy even if I just submit a jpg lolol. do you know any like must know tutorials or things to know before starting?

[prisma galleon]

I think it entirely depends on how much you've already done in UE.

My recommendation is to just take the engine and run with it. I do know a good paid tutorial I've been doing over the last few days though if you want me to DM it to you.

Otherwise you're better off using the official learning materials at the Learn Unreal Engine page.

[acoustic dirge]

sure i wouldnt mind taking a look that would be great!

[prisma galleon]

If you're totally fresh, this one very elegantly teaches you the interface and how to put together basic game design elements:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQgWpMEA6fs_wql62cd3JLFokHMC9nMoM

[acoustic dirge]

thats what I thought, I dont know a whole lot so im just going to try and make something basic pre jam and see what I can learn.

my fear is file size but if its simple enough it shouldnt be a problem

[acoustic dirge]

Oh ill check that out thanks!

[hearty ferry]

Oh wow, lots of interesting modifier categories this year!

[prisma galleon]

If your file is more than 1GB, you may utilize the Butler tool to upload your files to Itch.io. More info on that is here. Also check out Blendo Itch Uploader, a GUI for uploading projects to Itch.io.

This is from the page, it looks like > 1 GB submissions are fine for the contest itself. The problem is ItchIO, so if your game goes above that you'll need to split the files into separate ZIP downloads or use Butler.

[glass fossil]

Yeah it’s my first and I’m very nervous!

[acoustic dirge]

youll do great, just have fun

[glass fossil]

You’ll do great as well! To be honest I’m just excited to make something lol

[acoustic dirge]

haha same here, to many ideas to sift through

[placid anvil]

at least post the rules!?

[elder rune]

Excellent tutorial on using butler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXyzYRNLd1I

[jade sonnet]

#38th to join!

[junior blaze]

how do you register your team for the epic mega jam 2022?

oh found it

[vapid thistle]

Lovely, I've been waiting for this

[solid abyss]

no 69

[tulip maple]

anyone know why does it do thishttps://epicmegajamlandingzone.splashthat.com ? this is from the itch io page https://itch.io/jam/2022-epic-megajam

[past gyro]

Hey, everyone! Is it ok to use FMOD for sound integration for this jam?
Didn't find anytthing about it in the rules
Upd. In 2021 duscussions moderator told that we are free to use any third party plugins. We just have to list them.

[solid abyss]

I know that almost every year Assemblia's link has some issue.. or delay

I don't remember AWS being their as a sponsor before, but could be similar

they might give out codes closer to the actual jam

[tulip maple]

alrighty

btw do we have to use UE5?

[brazen lagoon]

i will use notepad++

How to Enter: Online submissions only.Entrants can submit a playable product created using Unreal Engine (“UE”) that relates to the relevant theme provided by the judges (the “Contest Theme”) to Sponsor’sContest page, reachable via https://itch.io/jam/2022-epic-megajam, during the Contest Period (as defined below) (“Submission”).

read

https://epicgames.ent.box.com/s/pukvs9rt9vl36m73xtd2u5a8hmptn0sp

[worn hamlet]

Correct. There will be a submission field upon submitting your entry on itch.io that will be for listing out any plugins or content used that are not, by default, shipped with Unreal Engine

[worn hamlet]

You can use any version of Unreal Engine

[worn hamlet]

We'll follow up with AWS on this :)

[worn hamlet]

As for Assembla, it is a manual process. We'll be checking the requests daily and manually creating your teams space and inviting the emails listed in the form response. That's why there can be the occasional delay (more so if a bunch come in over the weekend)

[gritty verge]

Are their team size limits for the jam?

[worn hamlet]

Maximum team size is 5

[gritty verge]

thank you! 🥰
I feel silly now just checked it is the very first line 😅

[worn hamlet]

It's all good! There's a lot of information there to digest!

[gritty verge]

since the jam is still a little far away can we request for team size increase or are these rules final?

[worn hamlet]

Nope, the Official Rules are final. The team size has to be 1-5. Any teams larger than that would be disqualified

[tough cypress]

Is 2021 typo?

It's 2022 game jam page

[maiden loom]

haha, typo yes

copypasted from last year probably

[worn hamlet]

What typo 😉

[tough cypress]

+1 point to me for finding it?

[maiden loom]

https://tenor.com/view/penguin-hide-you-didnt-see-anything-penguins-of-madagascar-gif-15123878

[solid abyss]

interesting how Intel is giving out their Alchemist GPU.. but they are not even as powerful as a 3080, so not sure its a good idea over CPU

but I really like the Artstation category 🙂

both for Realistic and Stylized game

[tough cypress]

Ha you just updated the page. But people watched it, I found it 😀

[solid abyss]

@worn hamlet are we not gonna get an update on why there was no quarterly jam.. this year, and straight after megajam we have megajam only.. nothing in between

just curious as to the reason

[tough cypress]

I'm more than happy to win 3080. I have 1060 rn

[maiden loom]

Intel really wants to promote their GPU range at the moment, but unfortunately they're not great, no

there haven't been any quarterly jams for years now

once upon a time they were monthly, lol

[solid abyss]

I think the last quaterly jam was 1 and half year ago

or 2 years

[maiden loom]

2019, I think

would have to look it up

spring jam 2020

[solid abyss]

yeah.. I wonder what happened.. covid is over, and money is not an issue .. thanks to papa fortnite

😅

[maiden loom]

organisation effort, I guess

(Covid is not over, at least here)

[tough cypress]

There's a economic inflation rn

You are aware right?

[solid abyss]

economic inflation?

[tough cypress]

Crisis

Also Fortnite is removed from GP and App Store

So papa fortnite isn't doing as great as before

[solid abyss]

owie..

[limpid estuary]

Hey friends! Stoked for the game jam but really nervous as to how to get a packaged project under 1gb. I made a game for the gamedev.tv game jam and it was 2.4 gb for a single level and just a few assets. Does anyone have any advice / tips on packaging ? I remember packaging an empty game once (just starter content) and it was half a gig. I'm thinking I may have settings set incorrectly somewhere.

I'm also seeing that one of the prizes is for the best game under 150 mb! I don't understand how this is possible. If anyone has any tips or any advice on what to read I really appreciate it.

Cheers!
Tele

[maiden loom]

start here:
https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.27/en-US/TestingAndOptimization/PerformanceAndProfiling/ReducingPackageSize/#:~:text=The easiest and quickest way,packages during the packing process.

it's for 4.27, but should still apply

you should be able to get a project right down to under 100Mb following this guide

smallest I've managed is about 20Mb, but that's extreme and I don't expect most people to do it

it takes real work to get it much lower than about 75Mb these days, I think?

[tough cypress]

I see it's only at the start the size is bigger but it's doesn't increase at crazy rate after that

[tough cypress]

Template project is usually around 80 - 100 mb

[limpid estuary]

Thanks so much!!!!

[vapid thistle]

They were so much fun

This is a fairly good starting point too https://github.com/pfist/Nano

[drifting pumice]

is that a custom engine build or is it achievable with the stock engine?

[maiden loom]

custom

you need to start cutting stuff out to get that small

e.g. by default the engine bundled PhysX debug DLLs that are literally never used in the shipping version but the engine checks for them anyway

kinda dumb

[stable kiln]

@worn hamlet

where does one get the code? 🙂

[plush trellis]

I was just about to ask this question myself 😄

[analog walrus]

It doesn't need to be under 1GB. If it's over you just need to use butler to upload it.

[solar lava]

Guys i have a question that can we use quixel and other assets for epics megajam ??

[elder rune]

@solar lava The answer lies in the rules, yes you can use whatever you like, but essentially, the more canned(pre-existing) stuff you use, the less score you will get.

[tough cypress]

no, not true. Pre-existing assets simply won't get points

[tough cypress]

It's doesn't lower the score of the work you've done during game jam. Read carefully

[elder rune]

My understanding was you could get points for composition and lighting but not for the assets themselves if they are premade/purchased? You see it differently? So I guess that would be in a visual category or Audio category for example. I wish I could remember where I read that wording. ...And a few seconds later I found it lol. It is on the official megajam page! "Example 1: A scene with environment art from the marketplace could get points for lighting and composition, but the pre-made assets wouldn't. "

[tough cypress]

Exactly

[elder rune]

So it DOES lower the score, why do you say it doesn't?

[plush trellis]

isn't "not getting points in some areas" the same as "your overall score will be lower"?

[elder rune]

Use canned art, it WILL lower your scrore.

I don't do art, or sound, I have no choice., as a solo dev.

[tough cypress]

Oh god

[tough cypress]

It says for lighting and composition that you do in the editor, not the pre-made assets itself.

[tough cypress]

Got it?

[tough cypress]

No. "Sourced (non-original) assets are allowed but will not be reviewed and scored."

[elder rune]

I can't win or get a placing, so it doesn't matter really. 🙂 Just a challenge.

One exception of using assets is best use of kitbash assets! 'The KitBasher - For the game with the best use of a KB3D Neo City pack'

[solar lava]

So it will low up my game points or not ??

[elder rune]

In the visual category you'd get next to zero points if you used marketplace assets only, unless you did amazing lighting, or arranged/composed them in some amazing way (I assume that is what is meant by 'composition'), is my understanding. Same with the Audio category.

[maiden loom]

No. It won't lower points, but it won't be considered when giving your entry a score.

[elder rune]

Confusing semantics...

Having premade assets will lower score(or effectively not give you a score), making them look nice with nice lighting will give you a little bit of score

[plush trellis]

Lol... seems like we need total clarification here:

So for a hypothetical example for our question:
You get scored for
1. Audio (5 points max)
2. Visuals (5 points max)
3. Gameplay (5 points max)
4. Environment (5 points max)

1. Unique Use of Contest Theme (5 points max)
2. Fun Factor (5 points max)
3. Visuals (5 points max)
4. Audio (5 points max)

the max you can get is 20 points here.

"IF" you were to use marketplace assets for the "visuals". Does that mean "you won't be scored for 'visual' points"? Therefore, leaving you at a max of 15 points possible?

So if it is 15 points maximum, since you happen to be a solo dev, who is unable to produce visual assets. That's essentially the same thing as "losing 5 points" from the max of 20 points? This is basically what some people are asking

[elder rune]

lol bad example given they arent the categories 🙂

BUt I get the gist of it

[plush trellis]

I mean, I'm asking the question. not answering it xD

[elder rune]

OK, so, yes, but for example, you could make some nice lighting and score 1/5

For the record they are
Unique Use of Contest Theme
Fun Factor
Visuals
Audio

so 3 and 4 are tough for solo dev

[plush trellis]

ah, let me change that for the example xD I forgot they had those listed out

Appreciate it, @elder rune

[elder rune]

I did my first jam few weeks ago, they had a winner in each of the categories, doesn't appear that way in this one, but do have modifier winners

so @plush trellis I am starting with pretty much maximum score of 10

[plush trellis]

yea, unfortunately the downside of being a solo dev, @elder rune D: . but it is what it is 😦

[solar lava]

I am not getting , xd

[elder rune]

So a winner in each category would have helped solo devs

I'd be lucky to have a menu in 7 days

Anyone going VR?

[carmine kindle]

I believe the overall reasoning behind the rules is that you don't get credit for things you didn't make during the jam. But that doesn't mean it would immediately subtract points from you. Take music for example: If your game has no music, you get 0 points, if you write some epic and amazing piece of music yourself that works great with the game, you get 5 points, but if you use a track from some music library that works really well with the game, you would still get points for using the music well, so maybe like a 2 or a 3.
So using great assets really well might be equivalent to making some lower-quality assets yourself, but still definitely better than having nothing.

[elder rune]

Yeah I got impression you wouldn't get any points for premade

Example 1: A scene with environment art from the marketplace could get points for lighting and composition, but the pre-made assets wouldn't.
Example 2: A scene with sourced audio could get points for implementation (spatialization, real-time modulation, etc), but the sourced audio wouldn't.

HOw you implement sound seems like a yes

[jolly dirge]

because the categories are somewhat generic the point is that while you don't get points for creation, you can still get points for implementation

which means you can still get 5/5 in visuals even if you use all premade assets if you're using them in unique ways

[elder rune]

And how you arrange or light your models might get you some points

Depends a lot on the asset doesn't it. I mean a large statue of Buddha, all you can do is rotate, scale etc, it isn't renewing it a lot, whereas a whole bunch of modular small assets you could reimagine

[jolly dirge]

not really. only thing that limits visual creativity is the person driving it. whether it's good or not is a different matter entirely though

if you're just thinking about a model without considering texture or shaders, sure its limited

[elder rune]

I wish I knew how to use Altermesh already (A blender plugin tool that works inside unreal, works like houdini)

[maiden loom]

to put it another way, the scoring system isn't about what you didn't do, like some kind of checklist where you need to tick things off for points

it's about what you actually did, and everything you contributed to the game is taken into account when it's scored

so if you use a marketplace character model, that model won't be considered when scoring the game, but how well it is integrated within the rest of your art direction and all that kind of stuff would be

[elder rune]

Wonder how hard it is to get a metahuman into game nowadays, start to finish. Is it doable properly now?

Last time I had a go, it didn't seem very finished/polished.

[maiden loom]

couldn't tell you tbh, barely done anything more with it than tinker with the web app thingo

you've got two weeks to work it out though if you wanted to go down that route

[jolly dirge]

they're used in the city sample crowds so if it's good enough for the sample project

[elder rune]

Knowing theme earlier would help to know what genre I need to prepare for.

[maiden loom]

it's kind of the entire point that you don't, hehe

[elder rune]

haha yeah

I did a jam about a month ago, first 4 or 5 days were getting over technical hurdles like 1Gb limit on itch

First jam hurdles lol

[maiden loom]

itch doesn't have a 1GB limit, just means you have to use their app to upload

rather than direct through the webpage

[elder rune]

Well I had to learn that and understand it, and work out how to overcome it, after trying to get game under 1gb, which failed miserably

I used the cmd console version to upload

(faster)

[maiden loom]

yeah fair - should be quite easy to get under 1GB though, I'm not sure what people are doing to have difficulty with that?

1GB is like, a lot of high res textures

[pure summit]

just use any environment asset pack from the marketplace and you are quickly in several hundret MB, if not some GB. use the megascan tree pack with 20 trees and you got 8 GB for alone that. so what people do is go low-poly and stylized, as any realistic assets are too heavy.

[maiden loom]

megascans are super overkill

[pure summit]

Epic should provide a free hosting solution for game-jams as well as source control in general.

[stone tulip]

When can we start forming teams?

[maiden loom]

nothing was stopping you forming teams 😉

[maiden loom]

You have itch.io, Assembla available for both?

Assembla offer a free Perforce depot for up to five users, for the purpose of the jam

there'll be a limit on the depot size, but I'm not sure what it is

50GB doesn't sound reasonable for a game jam though, you really shouldn't need that

[plush trellis]

Thank you for your explanation. Basically, it sounds like each category has no set maximum points; the better you do at a category, the more points you score. So you can falter on "visuals" category, but make up for it by blowing the "fun factor" category out of the water basically? Please correct me if I have the wrong idea 🙂

[maiden loom]

there's a maximum score for every category, but you really don't need to excel in every single field, it's not realistic in a one week jam

I really wouldn't overthink tbh, none of this stuff really matters, just make the game you want to make and do the best you're able

[plush trellis]

ah okay. Sorry for the nitpicking. Its my first game jam, and just like to be fully aware of how things work 😛

[maiden loom]

it's a black box, there's no real answer to exactly how things are scored

[plush trellis]

but yea you're right, if its a good, its a good game. Entrants should just focus on that

[maiden loom]

but you can easily look back at the winners of the past two years (jam had the same format), and you can see that not every game was perfect in every way 😄

[plush trellis]

yea, i rewatched the game jam from last year. it was pretty exciting

I noticed the reclaym game you made as well. that was really interesting

[maiden loom]

Reclaym was one of the bigger / more complicated games I've done for a jam, but it helps that I had good people to work with also 🙂

[glass fossil]

What software do you guys recommend for making music?

[past gyro]

Have you wrote music before on PC?

[glass fossil]

nope! 😂

[past gyro]

In this case I would recommend Studio One 5 or FL Studio latest version) Also, you can try Ableton)
Some people prefer Garage band as for complete beginners, but I didn't use it, can tell anything about it)

[glass fossil]

Thanks a million!

[still osprey]

I cant find itch.io page for 2022 megajam

[buoyant stratus]

https://itch.io/jam/2022-epic-megajam

[stark light]

The theme of MegaJam will be announced on 25?

[carmine kindle]

Yes

[idle beacon]

Any idea what the previous themes were in previous jams?

[calm urchin]

last one was "running out of space"

[civic dock]

Here are the themes from previous years:

• 2021: "Running out of space"
• 2020: "It's been a long time, but we're not done yet."
• 2019: "Down to Earth"
• 2018: "Reality is often inaccurate"
• 2017: "However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light."
• 2016: "Settle the score"
• 2015: "Standing on the shoulders of giants"

[solar lava]

I have another question that can we use plugins for making the game

??

In game jam

[idle beacon]

Or marketplace templates? Like ALS?

[idle beacon]

Thank you SO MUCH ⭐

[elder rune]

@solar lava I just went looking through last year's entries and spotted an entry that listed a plugin used.
"List any content that was created before the jam.
ProHUD and ProMainMenu plugin from unreal engine market."

[elder rune]

Not much space to play with in the Tiny Award even using the Nano template.

[idle beacon]

So using alsot moveit is fine as long as you list it?

[calm urchin]

Yeah, but thats a big system.. Hopefully you've already used it a bunch

[idle beacon]

Luckily!

[vapid thistle]

The nano template is just a starting point. I've gotten a project down to about 60MB with just the stock engine. Play around with the settings and see what works and what doesn't. https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.27/en-US/TestingAndOptimization/PerformanceAndProfiling/ReducingPackageSize/ I don't remember if the nano project makes use of all the suggestions in the docs. It's also important what engine version you use

[elder rune]

Thanks @vapid thistle, good to know.

Nano doesn't have a basic level in it or say a 3rd person template added, or VR, so I am adding one of those and testing sizes, to see how much I have left, and answer is, probably not enough for me to make a game in, given I don't do 3d modelling, and can't tailor low poly models. Well not in a 7 day period with the tiny and forgotten exposure I have to blender, at least.

[rigid fog]

I have mixed feelings on how the https://itch.io/jam/2022-epic-megajam page is set up. Not saying it's terribly bad, but it just seems like a huge advert and is super hard to read sometimes. There's probably only so much you can do with the Itch.io word editor though. It's definitely the longest one AFAIK, it feels like it's 30 pages long.

I do like that they have Student prizes now though.

Looking at last year's though: https://itch.io/jam/2021-epic-megajam it's definitely a bit more readable/easier to digest. Although it does seem the "expanded page layout" started last year, since 2020, https://itch.io/jam/2020-epic-megajam is shorter still.

Those links though... I wonder if maybe linking to one separate page (especially in regards to marketplace assets) wouldn't be better on the eyes. And if they want to stay on Itch, then just link to separate forum posts.

(Edit) Thinking about it some more, I think the problem is, I want to know what all the categories are, the requirements for those, and that's it. So basically some summary of them all, at the very top, then if I am interested, I can click on something else to read more about it down below (can't remember if Itch has heading linking though) in detail. Like prizes and such.

[analog walrus]

c'mon man. It's a jam. There's a ton of prizes. The look of the page is kinda trivial.

[rigid fog]

?

[analog walrus]

and it does what it's supposed to do in getting the information across.

[rigid fog]

It's actually kinda important 🙂

[analog walrus]

It's directed at UE devs though not someone buying a product

It's a reward for devs and a chance for epic to show off.

It may be that there's just so much info to get across that it's going to be an info dump no matter what.

[rigid fog]

Well, I would have to argue this point. I totally get that they have to do something for the sponsors. But they are selling something.

[worn hamlet]

One of the primary reasons is so that we can focus on making the Epic MegaJam more significant and feel better for all participants.
We did recently announce the winners of our first Unreal Challenge. These challenges provide a fun opportunity for developers and creatives across industries (not just games). The Unreal Challenge: Better Light Than Never focused on lighting within a scene. In the future, we plan to do a few of these throughout the year, which we hope will give further opportunities to learn and try new things for participants of the MegaJam.

Future focuses of these challenges might be anything from animation, level design, mechanics, and who knows what else! 😄

[analog walrus]

I just think it looks fine and does what it's supposed to.

[rigid fog]

But, in any case, my point stands. It's really hard to just get what you want to know with all the extra. Especially as someone's who's either participated or at least glanced at Epic Megajam since the very beginning.

[worn hamlet]

Thank you for that feedback @rigid fog. The editing and format capabilities of their editor can sometimes be restrictive. We are looking into how we can better this in the future, so the feedback is greatly appreciated. We introduced more images and banners in the aim of providing a visual break to the text.

Are you having some problems with the links not opening a new tab? We may have missed some (its a checkbox on every link)

[rigid fog]

Is there anyway to make the category headings to H1 or H2 (not sure what they are, but bigger than the regular text). But I easily missed a lot of things because the heading of the category wasn't posted before a huge image, and strangely I was drawn to the bolded category name afterwards even though it's bolded before it also. So I was looking for the requirements, which are before the image. At the very least, that should help with some readability.

[rigid fog]

No, I never ever try to open up any of those links. I would be super curious how many people do. Which is why I brought up, just having one link to a forum post with all those links. To help clear up the massive lists of links.

I'm not trying to be a pain here, I'm just pointing out that it was super hard to read the first time I opened this thing up and it just seems to be getting worse every year.

But also, randomly, I think an image is missing for XR category 🙂

[worn hamlet]

We'll look into it and see if we can switch those to headers for improved readability 🙂

[rigid fog]

Thanks for taking it into consideration!

[worn hamlet]

Too many modifiers 😉

[worn hamlet]

How are those modifier headers looking now? 🙂

[rigid fog]

yup better!

[worn hamlet]

We'll spin up a survey once the submission window closes so we can have a good place for everyone to provide centralized (and anon) feedback if they so wish 🙂

[civic dock]

I agree the itch.io page is a bit much, but I also understand there's a lot of stakeholders involved and the itch.io content editor is limiting. The best suggestion I have: you can ask itch.io to turn on custom CSS support for your pages. Then let someone who knows CSS dig in for a bit and clean up the hierarchy, spacing, etc.

It's a bit of a brute force solution, but it's the best you can do and it goes a long way in the hands of someone who is comfortable with CSS.

[worn hamlet]

Not saying this will happen, or if it did, any time soon, but how would everyone feel if the jam was hosted directly on https://dev.epicgames.com/community and we developed our own page and submission solution? Or perhaps a middle ground where the primary information was hosted on dev.epicgames.com/community and we had a smaller itch page and submitted through itch?

[rigid fog]

Well, seeing how jams (even MegaJam) originally were on the forums...

I wouldn't mind it 🙂

[civic dock]

I think there would have to be clear benefits. Having the jam hosted on itch.io is convenient because itch.io jams come with a lot of smart features baked in.

[rigid fog]

It would definitely help with the limit sizes and such I'm sure.

[analog walrus]

Seems like a lot of work and expense to take on. Games added to itch are also hosted available there for as long as people want them to be.

[worn hamlet]

There would definitely be pros and cons to consider either way for sure

[rigid fog]

This is actually a good point.

[civic dock]

itch.io has the advantage of being a primary source for streamers to find free games to cover, so hosting there has multiple advantages beyond the jam itself.

[worn hamlet]

We'll speak to Itch and see if there are other things we might be able to tap into, whether thats css or something else. They're constantly working on new things so who knows!

[analog walrus]

One of the things I like about using itch is that it's also a store front. For a lot of people it's their first experience uploading to something like that and all they have to do is set up the accessibility for the files so that it's only free to judges add a price if they want and they've published something.

[civic dock]

There are so many modifiers this time.

[analog walrus]

Yeah. A bit of overload reading through it all.

[civic dock]

Oh, someone updated the link color to match the banner. Looks better.

[analog walrus]

I like seeing the student ones, but are they still competing for the grand prize?

think I answered that

Shouldn't be typing here with this little caffeine in my system.

[civic dock]

You just reminded me I wanted to make an iced coffee.

[solid abyss]

I personally believe that in the mid-to-long term, its beneficial to take advantage of "Front Page" formatting capabilities of other alternatives then Itch.io, but "Registration & Final Submission" should remain on itch.io since that part works fine. Its like in web-development dividing it into Front-End, Back-End.

Alternatively, Epic is like a big customer for itch.io.. if someone reaches out to itch.io team even in a semi-casual semi-official way.. I think they would ought to listen. Though they (itch.io) should have improved their Front-End UI stuff by themselves, without anyone telling them. Maybe itch is like that cousin that one has to wake up and drag down from their home to go to that the ball-game.

btw @worn hamlet Hmm, that actually makes sense, that sounds somewhat reasonable that Challenges push "specific skills" 3-4 times a year, and like MegaJam is the place to put all those different skillsets together to make game. Maybe their is room for 1 smaller Jam before the actual one each year.

@civic dock yeah I really like that artstation modifiers giving attention to both stylized and photorealism art-styles 🙂

[analog walrus]

synchronicity.

[worn hamlet]

If a student team doesn't want to compete as one, then they would be included in the non-student categories. There is a field upon submission regarding this. Of course whether student or otherwise, each can win modifiers 🙂

[civic dock]

Yeah, that's certainly an option. They could build their own landing page for the jam on the EDC and just have a minimal one on itch that says "View all the details here". Not perfect, but it would give them more control over the design.

I like your idea about small challenges, too. I've been thinking of doing something like that here in the future.

[worn hamlet]

It would also allow us to explore localizing the event page itself, and other accessibility options

[worn hamlet]

Be sure to let us know how we might be able to support those 😉

[civic dock]

True, and whatever options are opened up by hooking into the Discourse backend that powers EDC as well.

Embedding recommended tutorials and other resources, for example.

Like you said, each approach has their own pros and cons. 🙂

Keeping it all on itch seems like less logistical headaches for you.

[worn hamlet]

For sure, we could probably do a lot on the Discourse side of thing that we couldn't dream of back when they were hosted on the older forum platform a few years ago

[civic dock]

Yeah most likely.

[worn hamlet]

We'll be sure to keep the community in the loop though and provide opportunities for input on the direction 🙂

[civic dock]

Discourse is a lot more modern and powerful than the old vBulletin.

[worn hamlet]

cries in vBulletin

[solid abyss]

my dreamteam for this jam would be a team with which I can win the artstation stylized category

draws shapes on sand

[past gyro]

I have same goal for audio category)

[worn hamlet]

Anyone got the Lose It or Lose It modifier in mind yet?

[analog walrus]

My last entry didn't use any textures

but doubt that will happen this time with having some solid artists on the team

[plush trellis]

IMO, I actually like the way the itch.io epic jam 2022 page is laid out. The sheer amount of assets listed out under each winner is what gets people hyped about doing their best to win. I personally would NOT have enjoyed seeing "click here to see marketplace assets you'd get as prizes"

From my experience so far, the links to those prizes work well. Its just the "click here to get $1000 in AWS credits" that resulted in a "private event" notice, about 2 days ago. Upon clicking it now, it seems like it works. I signed up, and a rep will contact me in a few days.

[civic dock]

I don't think the list of prizes is what anyone takes issue with. Certainly not me. It's the poor contrast and hierarchy in the typography. Headings don't stand out from paragraphs enough and the tight line height makes it difficult to read.

[plush trellis]

@civic dock this was mainly why I wrote that section xD some people do have issues with all those links

[civic dock]

I stand corrected. lol

[plush trellis]

unless I might have interpreted wrong, and perhaps the underlined links just made the whole paragraph hard to read in general.

[civic dock]

A better alternative would be toggles, although I don't think itch.io lets you do this.

Collapsible sections where you click the disclosure arrow to reveal prizes one category at a time would work.

I do agree the prize lists are a little difficult to parse as comma-separated lists. They should probably be nested lists.

[plush trellis]

seems like a neat idea

[civic dock]

It's possible since the itch.io editor lets you add raw HTML.

[plush trellis]

Honestly, I think the itch.io page is amazing anyway. I'm sure it was hard work coordinating with all the sponsors, and making sure every prize was listed under each category correctly. Which is probably why the page was released to the public a couple days later than previously stated. Just the fact that there is an epic mega jam each year is a blessing enough. Good work 👍

[civic dock]

Yeah I can't imagine the coordination with stakeholders to get all that content together in one place.

It's not easy to manage.

Especially when this is what you have to work with for inputting that content.

[plush trellis]

LOL, looks like a pain in the butt 😭

[civic dock]

Yeah. Give me my Ghost editor any day of the week.

Anyway, I'm pretty interested to see what the theme is this year, and to see how everyone interprets it. Always fun.

[plush trellis]

oh, so you don't even know what the theme is? o.O

interesting, should be fun then 😄

[past gyro]

Yeah, the theme will be announced august 25th )

[plush trellis]

yea, figured at least an admin would know. I suppose they really do keep the theme on lock until release date 😆

[civic dock]

We don't work for Epic, so we find out the same day you do. 🙂

I usually watch the theme announcement live so I can add it here asap.

[jolly dirge]

I don't have anything in mind for it, but I wanted to say use it or lose it seems like such a fun modifier and a great idea overall! A couple fun little "side" modifiers like that beyond the regular ones actually feels really compelling, I guess they're things that could also be used in the Challenge series as well?

[rigid fog]

Yeah, personally, I could do without the prize links (particularly MP assets since there are so many usually). However, it is a matter of there's just SO MANY LINKS! To me, it just looks terrible and hard to read. It's like "So and so" CLICK HERE LINK CLICK HERE LINKCLICK HERE LINKCLICK HERE LINKCLICK HERE LINK by CLICK HERE LINK "Oh and this" CLICK HERE LINKCLICK HERE LINK CLICK HERE LINK (I am being a bit facetious here, but hopefully that helps understand my POV). This is made worse that not only the assets but also the creators get separate links right after and for me seems a bit unnecessary. (If they removed the creators ones, that'd be a 50% reduction off the bat).

What could be nice is one is some sort of Spoiler or "Drop Down Arrow" thingies (not sure what they are called), that collapse paragraphs, that could be an alternative, instead of a simple link to a itch.io game jam community forum post (particular to that category).

But yeah, combination of poor contrast and layout along with the sheer number of links is a bit off-putting visually to me anyway.

Again, personally, I was just trying to scroll through real quick to check out all the categories (and reqs) at a glance and see what could be cool to try out or if there were new ones, but the prizes to me weren't important. And most of the categories have a crapton of prizes with links in them, which makes things worse when just trying to scan through.

And, with all the images and links, it sadly does look more like a huge advert. I mean, imagine getting this thing in your email, you'd be very suspect with all those links.

Of course, this is just because I'm comparing and thinking about how the MegaJam got started and what it is today. The prizes have always been the best part of the MegaJam, there's no doubt about that. I mean, they've basically first killed off monthly jams and looks like quarterly jams are dead now too (which is a terrible shame) and so we have these "massive list of prizes".** But I don't want to go through 30 pages (and if this keeps up, maybe 50-60 pages next year), just to find what I want**. That's all my complaint was.

But like @civic dock pointed out, there's only so much you can do with itch text editor.

(Edit)

Actually, I took a quick glance again, looks like a lot of them are actually multiple assets by one creator. It just hard to read them.

[analog walrus]

Thing is the links are part of what the people offering the prizes get out of contributing prizes. and the prizes are a big part of why the mega jam gets as many entries as it does.

There being too many prizes to read through, seems like a good problem to have.

[fringe pivot]

so i stop making games 2 years ago and decided to give megajam 2022 a shot... to see if i still know how to use Unreal Engine 🙂

[elder rune]

I forget stuff I did 5 mins ago.

I forget stuff I did 5 mins ago.

[stone tulip]

What's the place where teams will be advertising their projects? I'd like to take an initiative while searching for a group for the megajam.

[jaunty dirge]

just heard about this megajam, im kinda new to ue5 so idk if i should join in or not

[elder rune]

@jaunty dirge You can always just have a go at it without joining. If you get to a point where you might get it going, then join.

@stone tulip try the game-jam-lfg group, otherwise, projects won't go up on itch.io until we know what the theme is, and the jam has started.

[elder rune]

https://itch.io/jam/2022-epic-megajam/entries is where the entries are

[gray flint]

i dont know if i can post that here but here it is:

https://mab0r0shi.itch.io/slime-masters

[marsh oxide]

interesting categories this time around, for multiplayer gamelift sponsor is super nice, i wish there was smth similar from playfab since is easier to implement for a game jam

[glass fossil]

does gamelift work on UE5? their docs only says 4.26

[plush trellis]

Yes, gamelift works on UE5. I'll be using gamelift myself

[glass fossil]

That's great. I almost just skipped trying

[plush trellis]

Oh no D: Yea, definitely give it a go. Though, if you haven't used Gamelift before, it can be a bit confusing. If you have an AWS Cloud Practitioner's Certification, Gamelift will be a breeze. But anyone with general server knowledge and the ability to read through Gamelift's documentation should be able to implement it with their games. 🙂

[fallow plank]

I guess who is from Italy can't partecipate on the unreal game jam again :(. Can someone from Italy participate in a team that is eligible to win the prizes?

[past gyro]

Why can't italians join the jam? That's very strange

[fallow plank]

From the official rules. Probably cause of our old laws about prizes in a contest. Just italian burocracy, i guess is the same for Brazil and Quebec.

[storm blade]

Regarding Use it or lose it category (only use one texture for everything) what if somebody were to pack a bunch of textures into a single larger texture like an atlas, technically that is still one texture, is that thinking outside the box or just a lame thing to do? I feel like it could be an effective tactic but also one that destroys the purpose of the category and removes all the fun from it. What do you guys think?

[solemn flower]

Is there a board where people can look for teammates for this jam?

[elder rune]

@solemn flower it is just below this board on the list on the left <--- game-jame-lfg

[rugged plaza]

I wish I could join a team. I just never have enough time available to be a good team mate 💩

[elder rune]

Yeah I might spend 16 hours a day every day, or give up after finding out the theme, so I will stay solo. Besides, I really don't like source control. Still have nightmares over git lol

[elder rune]

What is a minimum list of items to build into a typical menu in a JAM? How important is a good menu, or simple menu?
Obviously START game, and EXIT should be in it.
Should screen sizes be built into menu?
Music/sound on/off change volume?
Technical stuff involving visual aspects?
Load/Save?
(Probably a time permitting thing, for a lot of menu building)

[vapid thistle]

I don't prioritize the menu until my game is pretty much done. The barebones will get you through but a nice complete menu is always nice if you have time

[cursive vale]

Usually just whatever's necessary to start / exit the game. For most jams options/save menus are usually a bit overkill (depending on the project).

I spent way too long troubleshooting the save/load in my 2021 entry that I didn't even have time to finish/polish the upgrade system it was meant to save, so I learned that lesson the hard way.

[marsh oxide]

i think you can prep the menius before the jam and adapt them to the theme during the jam

[jaunty dirge]

Is there a certain length our game has to be?

[carmine kindle]

Don't worry about the length, there have been 3 minute arcade/party style games and also hour long adventure/exploring games among the winners in the past. Although if you want a target length - most people probably won't spend more than 15 minutes on your game, unless they really like it.

[zenith needle]

Does anyone know the aprox date of the next game jam?

[vapid thistle]

If you build your menu before I believe you still need to declare that even if you have to adapt it to work with your game

[maiden loom]

correct, you would declare it as created before the jam

there used to be a little template of stuff like that once upon a time, but not sure where it got to

but honestly a super basic menu is something you can knock out in a couple of hours if you've done it before

[elder rune]

That is a little vague to answer. Do you mean ANY Jam or next Epic Jam? Epic Jam starts in 8 days. Otherwise you can look here --> https://itch.io/jams

[zenith needle]

Yeah, sorry. I mean the Epic game jam, thanks!

[elder rune]

Wasn't sure, as it says 8 days for Epic jam in the title. 🙂

[wet sequoia]

hey how to redeem our free AWS credit for epic game jam?

[tawny tide]

Assembla hasn't replied to my email or sent me anything in relation to my signup form. What should I do?

[worn hamlet]

The Assembla spaces aren't granted straight away. These will be granted from Monday. Monday AM Eastern we will manually create and invite those that signed-up.

[glass fossil]

yikes, game jam lfg looking like a lot like high end job applications or interviews. Thought jams were supposed to be for fun? haha

[maiden loom]

it varies, different people want different things, haha

[past gyro]

))) I think it's because people got into GMTK jam for fun. Less time and less stakes)
This feels more interesting, cause more time to do some very cool things and polish the game.

[glass fossil]

I guess ill just solo it again lol

[past gyro]

ahah)

[vapid thistle]

Soloing it is the best! It teaches you how to do everything

[glass fossil]

i know how to do a lot of stuff already, I just want to have fun and learn/experience from others :D

[vapid thistle]

Fair enough. And knowing how to work with a team is really helpful

[tawny tide]

If you post that you're doing it for fun, you'll find people.

[golden snow]

I'm trying to log in to the forum to find a team but everytime I try to log in the server shows an error 😦

[opaque pasture]

maybe try clearing your browser cache. hard to say, could be a number of things.

[golden harbor]

Is anyone here participating in the mega jam and need a teammate

[past gyro]

Try to leave and re-enter discord channel and approve rules if there will be a button for that

[stark light]

Good choice :D I am solo too

[cyan fog]

Noticed a few professional project parasites getting active in this chat. Trust with care people.

[jade sonnet]

Anyone here participate in the Wowie Jam 4.0?

[jaunty dirge]

do we have to only use ue5 or can we use ue4?

[vapid thistle]

You can use any engine version you want

[tame nimbus]

Hello please my posting at #game-jam-lfg

Finding a writer and someone who can write a GDD is my number one priority.

[calm urchin]

Game jam games don't usually have a legit GDD afaik. Not enough time to spend that much on logistics.
I'd focus on people who can contribute to production

[glass fossil]

Can people realistically make GDDs for 7 day games?

[maiden loom]

I usually hammer a 1-2 pager out quickly within the first few hours as a rough guideline, but outside of that I would suggest it's really not worth it

looks like I still have ours from last year:

and the resulting game for reference https://ambershee.itch.io/reclaym-the-kingdom

[glass fossil]

That's impressive

[solid abyss]

I would just not care, since its not submitted, and scope of a game designed in such a short period is small enough to hold in head.

[glass fossil]

For solos that work, but I guess teams probably need to write somewhere what they need to be doing though

[solid abyss]

for that they just make a discord server, and dedicate a channel for only 'stuff to be done' in which no one talks.

atleast that is what works for me fine

[glass fossil]

Oh that works too. I'm not in a team so I'll probably just keep it in my head too

[glass fossil]

wdym? people trying to steal ideas? 😅

[cyan fog]

Parasite on project for pay and profile without giving contribution. That’s what I mean

[tame nimbus]

Well a basic gdd

[rugged plaza]

3 days, y'all. I'm gonna try to at least enter some form of game solo lol

I wish I had enough time to dedicate to a team but I may get 20 free hours or 20 minutes. Never can tell

[urban plume]

Hi. If I use quixel in jam this assets are sourced?

[worn hamlet]

This is correct 🙂

Just a heads up to folks, the Assembla space emails have started going out today, so if you signed up, please double check your inbox for the invite 🙂

Everyone that has signed up for an Assembla space up until now should have received an invite email.

[zealous briar]

So all the assets that they give us access to, are they all classed as sourced?

[worn hamlet]

Technically yes, but some are also required to meet criteria for special modifiers. The KitBasher for example.

[zealous briar]

Wdym by special modifiers

[worn hamlet]

There are 13 special modifier categories, each with a unique criteria. An overall finalist or student finalist can also win up to one modifier, or they may win only a modifier- depending on the scores/criteria

●Army Of One -For the best game created by a solo developer.
●Light It Up -For the game with the most creatively lit environment that includes real-time ray tracing.
●Audio Experience -For the game with the best audio (music and sound).
●Make Us Go WOW! (Stylized)-For the game with the most stunning stylized graphics
●Make Us Go WOW! (Photoreal)-For the game with the most stunning photoreal graphics
●Is This Real Life? (XR)-For the best XR game.
●Procedural Magicians (Procedural Generation)-For the best game that used Houdini from SideFX
●Tiny But Mighty (under 150MB) -For the best game that is less than 150MB (total size of the packaged playable game)
●Use it or Lose It -For the best game created using only a single, 4 channel texture map.
●Fully Kitted -For the game with the best use of Achievements using AWS GameKit
●Multiplayer Elevation -For the best multiplayer game that uses AWS GameLift
●The KitBasher -For the game with the best use of a KB3D Neo City pack
●Double Trouble -For the best game that makes use of paired animations

Be sure to check out the event page https://itch.io/jam/2022-epic-megajam

[rugged plaza]

Please 🙏 let it be a good theme please

I suck at themes almost as bad as I suck at modelling.

[vapid thistle]

🤞 Open world rpg

[urban plume]

what happend if I get them and make them stylized by houdini? its sourced again?

[worn hamlet]

Non-original assets should still be credited in the submission field for assets created before the jam. Though it would be worth noting those changes as there is something to be said about using non original assets in creative ways to support the game you create. You can find an example of this on the even page.

[elder rune]

What is meant by 'sourced'?

[elder rune]

Ok I assume it to mean a pre-made asset.

150Mb is too small for me to produce ANYTHING playable. 😦

If I placed a single kitbash3d item in the Nano project simplified scene I suspect I would go over 150Mb lol

Is there a good article explaining 'For the best game created using only a single, 4 channel texture map.'

[blazing quiver]

yeah I have questions about this too: can we use vector parameters to make colors and is it just one texture map for the entire project? or per material?

[elder rune]

Mine is more basic. like what is it? 🙂

For such a technical modifier it should perhaps have had more background info.

I guess the answer lies in this somewhere "Texture your game using only a single, 4 channel texture map!

Think outside the box - How cleverly can you build materials for your project? Use a 4 channel TGA texture prepared however you like as the only texture input for all of the materials in your submission."

@blazing quiver for entire project, I would say, after looking at that

[urban plume]

1 texture for all game and you must send it with project

[urban plume]

not original. any marketplace item or something made by someone else

[blazing quiver]

though many variations of materials I assume?

and what about using the same texture multiple times in one material for use in say: panning

[elder rune]

An example of valid and invalid would be helpful. 🙂 e.g I see tutorials for master material online but I don't understand if they would be valid.

[icy patrol]

For the modifier challenge! “Tiny but mighty under 150MB” , if I package empty project I get size ~200MB lol. What Should I do ?
1-include only a loading screen for players to download full game from Amazon cloud (to win two modifier too😆)
2- disable all game engine built in plugs , c++ random procedure generation at the run-time of gameplay for only 1 small object without texture and character is the same object to manoeuvre(what a boring game)!

There are trade-off to which modifier to choose. I think better to focus on building a good game under 1GB that fit theme , then we can see what changes to fit modifiers.

[elder rune]

@icy patrol If you haven't spotted it yet, there is a good pre-made project called Nano specifically made for the small project that will get you well under 150Mb when packaged, if you use 4.26 or 5.0.

I added a menu, and the 3rd person template to it, and now it is 135Mb. So I have 15Mb to create a game in lol. Not going to happen.

If you use 32bit it will be smaller again

[icy patrol]

by default when you download unreal engine more than half of available plugin enabled, how I can know which will be required on my project. could you please share link to that project?

[elder rune]

https://github.com/pfist/Nano

[icy patrol]

I was following this tutorial https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.27/en-US/TestingAndOptimization/PerformanceAndProfiling/ReducingPackageSize/

[elder rune]

It was created using that and more

I even disabled another 15 or so plugins today from it trying to reduce it more

Little to no difference though

[icy patrol]

include prerequisite if I unchecked you save 40 MB, but if end user don't have like .Net framework ?

[elder rune]

As far as KNOWING what your project needs, there are assets you can run which can clean up.

It is suggested you have a version without and with prereqs

especially if you are trying to go for that modifier

so people can play it who don't necessarily already play unreal games

[icy patrol]

maybe for android package , you get advantage or as you mention 32bit windows and will have to spawn random waves of gameplay

I won't go for only 1 modifier to risk other 12, thanks for sharing link

[elder rune]

No problem.

Doesn't hurt to start with a nano package to keep it lean anyway

[icy patrol]

I wish if there is a setting in editor to tick if there is any plugins or assets not being used to get excluded at packaging stage.

[elder rune]

https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/assets-cleaner-project-cleaning-tool

[rugged plaza]

Can't you just use load only maps to do the same thing?

Or package only maps

[icy patrol]

Yes, you can do that to get rid of unrelated content, but for modifier 150 mb on a shipped game it will include all binary code of default enabled plugins of your editor which can take a few megabytes

[rugged plaza]

Oh I usually just manually disable plugins

[icy patrol]

You can not disable all , there are some very important to use editor

[rugged plaza]

Right

[icy patrol]

You can disable 2d , VR/AR if your game desktop

2d paper

[rugged plaza]

Apple stuff too and Android stuff

[icy patrol]

Yes that easy but for physics chaos , and actor .. I guess i have to keep

[rugged plaza]

Never ever disable the plugin browser 💩💩💩 I did that once

[carmine kindle]

Or just go with the 4.0 engine version and it'll package under 100 mb by default

[rugged plaza]

Lmao

[icy patrol]

We only figure out to do the right way at game jam

[rugged plaza]

You have to experiment

[icy patrol]

32 bit is smaller

[rugged plaza]

Not really usually

Also package your game a lot.

It will help you find package errors if you only packaged 2 hours ago instead of 2 days ago

[icy patrol]

Last year theme was very good

Running out of space

[rugged plaza]

Oh yeah I made a 2d game that sucked.

This year I wanna make a 3d game that sucks lol

[icy patrol]

Running out of time/inventory/bullets/.. any interpretation works

[carmine kindle]

Lots of amazon warehouse worker simulators

[rugged plaza]

One of them was down to earth and extra credits for using cats lol

[icy patrol]

Yes 3d is only appealing

[rugged plaza]

I made a game that sucked called Litterbox Lander 🤣

Lunar Lander but a space cat landing in a litterbox 💩

[carmine kindle]

I think one of the winners of that one went on to make an actual game out of theirs

The spaceship repairing one with cats

[icy patrol]

At least you try and learn. This is my first jam ,but I have programming experience

[rugged plaza]

I remember that one

Jams are learn crunches. This will be my 7th unreal jam

I usually only have just a few hours to spend on it though.

[carmine kindle]

I made one of those 2 hour games for one jam once and it was awful 😀

[rugged plaza]

Doesn't matter. You made it. That's better than most.

For Unreal jam 50 people will post their games that have been on itch for weeks or months

Cab never tell if they are seriously trying to win or just trying to get exposure for their game 🤷‍♂️

[carmine kindle]

And there's usually at least one who submits it like 10 minutes after the jam has started, prolly for the clicks from people trying to confirm that it's not a valid entry

[solid abyss]

Also there are few, who submit old Sega/NES games like SmashBros sometimes.. just for kicks 😄

strange world, not sure what these people get out of it

[carmine kindle]

I remember that too, that was really weird.

[glacial urchin]

Anyone else has issues exporting with UE5(.0.3)?

[latent flume]

Привіт! Є можливіть взяти участь в https://itch.io/jam/2022-epic-megajam У нас є команда, з 3 людей, яка налаштована не просто взяти участь, а й зайняти призові місця. Наразі нам потрібно знайти гарного програміста з досвідом роботи в уе4-5. Який хоча б кілька років працював в ігровій індустрії(бажано). І щоб була змогла присвятити не менш ніж по 8 годин на день)
Наразі наша команда:

1. 3d artist, рік досвіду.https://www.artstation.com/sniggovik
2. Sound designer, досвід в музиці 7 років, і ігровій індустрії 2 роки.https://itch.io/profile/bravods
3. Level designer, досвід роботи на фрілансі, є досвід в інших epic MegaJam. https://www.artstation.com/andrewrain
   tg - https://t.me/VladyslavDidyk

[manic rivet]

hi so the game jam theme announcement is tomorrow

but does also the game jam start tomorrow?

like tomorrow at 3 pm et you can start creating the project etc?

[upper thistle]

Yeah I think Jam starts as soon as the theme is announced.

[manic rivet]

ok thanks

[rugged plaza]

13 people are already waiting on the stream like hurry TF up lol

[icy patrol]

May I ask if we can ship the game to HTML5?

I can get a game size 50MB with default templet

[rugged plaza]

It has to be packaged for windows 7 8 10 android osx or ios

They allowed that one jam but it said it specifically

[icy patrol]

Ok, i will use HTM5 on other Jams 👍

UE4.23 can produce HTML5

[rugged plaza]

Yeah you can build the other later engines with the branch too

I made a game called SWAT No Fly Zone (Stupid game) and it was literally about swatting Flys 🤣

I put it in the horror genre because it was horrible game and got a lot of complaints lmao

[icy patrol]

Do you use UE5.03?

Lol

No horror

I got problem with UE5.03

Can’t let me package and ask for SDK

I downloaded SDK still same problem

[rugged plaza]

What are u packaging for?

[icy patrol]

Windows 11

Early access version was fine

[rugged plaza]

I only have 10 I've never tried. Do you have the win 11 version of visual studio installed?

[icy patrol]

I have visual studio 2019

I had 2022 but I deleted. Maybe that caused problem

[rugged plaza]

Probably

[icy patrol]

I m using Visual studio 2019 with UE4 now

[rugged plaza]

Dunno

[icy patrol]

I m not sure if i can get any benefits from UE5 for 1 week game

[rugged plaza]

I'm prolly gonna use 4.27

[brazen pendant]

i had the same, sdk didnt install itself in correct folder for UE5 so i had to move it there manually

you may try that

[icy patrol]

what SDK version? do you have visual studio 2022 ,because I think VS placed it automatically on right location.

[brazen pendant]

uhm, i will look up the video i found to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMEaFo-kuLE&t=218s

[vivid oriole]

is the theme public yet?

[past gyro]

Here you can see the countdown to start
https://itch.io/jam/2022-epic-megajam

[verbal ibex]

sup sup sup

i think the odds on this contest are horrible

im interested though

[elder rune]

https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/inside-unreal-2022-epic-megajam-kickoff/632799

What is ET ?

Epic Time?

[verbal ibex]

eastern time

theres standard or daylight so they just skip it

[elder rune]

in what country

[verbal ibex]

usa

[elder rune]

is that same as EST

[verbal ibex]

yes sort of

but i dont know if its daytime (EDT)

dont have a calendar p:

[elder rune]

time converter online didnt recognise ET

[verbal ibex]

welp it depends on if its daylight savings time if its EST or EDT

and i cant remember

how many people enter this contest

[elder rune]

488 entries last year

Hmm well it will be 4am here when it starts, and they announce the theme!

[civic dock]

The timestamp in this channel's topic shows your local time.

[elder rune]

Yeah, I thought the theme was given ahead of the start time, but looks like at the same time. Cheers. I also discovered if I click on the link, then on the word countdown it gave me a local time too. Thanks, didn't know about the hovering trick.

[ivory dove]

Rules quesiton about Submission may include sourced (non-original) assets, provided that (i) all sourced (non-original) assets must be noted, and (ii) such assets will not be reviewed or scored
If I were to use stock royalty audio files, that would fall under this rule, correct?
Its allowed but won't be scored for the audio category?

[maiden loom]

correct

how you use them would be scored, but the actual cues themselves would not be

in previous jams we declared foley that came from libraries and I don't think it harmed us at all

[worn hamlet]

4 hours to go until the kickoff livestream! Who's excited?

[elder rune]

sort of excited, but as a solo dev that can't do graphics or audio it is difficult lol

[carmine kindle]

Audio is easy, just make funny noises with your mouth

[elder rune]

So a farting game!

[carmine kindle]

That's been my tactic for both chimp noises and tank engines

[elder rune]

I looked through a few audio programs for music, couldn't decide on anything. Maybe arthurs audio BPs

Doesn't exactly produce dulcet tones, or music satisfying to the ear though, but looks kind of cool, when synced to lights.

If the theme is disco, I'm set lol

[carmine kindle]

There's also https://www.bfxr.net/ and https://www.beepbox.co/ for easily creating some more oldschool sounding effects and music

[elder rune]

flash?

[carmine kindle]

You can download the standalone one there

[elder rune]

I did flash back in the day, wrote a flash front end, displayed some graphs, which called a fortran backend lol (work related )

Fairly unique I would say!

Thanks for the program mentions

[worn hamlet]

Have you looked at the audio resources available for the jam on the event page?

[elder rune]

Can't recall there being audio resources

Oh downloading from various libraries provided

What can be used and scored in Jam, from listed audio resources? 🙂 Or still about how you implement them?

[maiden loom]

We Love Indies has a whole library

you'll have access to it during the jam

it's not amazing, but there's some half decent stuff in there and it's better than nothing of course 😄

[elder rune]

Yes, but if you don't create sounds you don't get scored on them

[maiden loom]

also true

[elder rune]

May as well have a silent game lol

SO I can just use my own marketplace assets, no advantage/disadvantage over those ones

Unless they have some good ones of course

Time for bed for me, see you on the other side of the jam!

Happy jamming peoples!

Good luck, and above all have fun, and enjoy the journey!

[gentle beacon]

You can still get score for using them, how you implemented the sounds, just not a full score.

[manic rivet]

guys 3 hours to go!

[kindred swift]

Hey, I was taking a look at the rules and it says "Without limitation of the foregoing, the Contest is not open to individuals in the province of Quebec, Brazil, or Italy." Why is that? Also, is this for the game submission or does that mean I can't participate as a composer because I'm in Brazil?

[hazy ice]

Any rumored theme for megajam?

Any leaks

[carmine kindle]

I would bet that it's probably going to be a sequence of words that mean both one thing and many things all at once

[hazy ice]

Let's see!

[icy patrol]

it will be about Sci Fi or apocalypse lol

[urban moth]

Hello, is there a specific channel for finding teammates for the upcoming jam?

[icy patrol]

#game-jam-lfg

[urban moth]

Ah of course. Thank you!

[dusty forum]

Question: Anything special you need to do to enter the modifier categories? Is there a limit to how many you enter?

[icy patrol]

last year, two team won two category. there is no limit to how many you can win if the rules were followed.

this year they added students category ,so more participants

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11TBGEdRT5A

[worn hamlet]

We changed that this year. A winning team can only win up to one modifier, unless there are no other eligible entries for an additional modifier. As an example if someone is a 2nd place finalist they might also be able to win one modifier if eligible and is the best in that criteria.

[dusty forum]

Thanks! And do you have to explicitly say which modifier you are entering?

[worn hamlet]

Yes, on submission it asks you wish you would like to put in for

[maiden loom]

this is not correct - the rules have changed this year so that a team can only win one modifier

ah Skye beat me to it 😄

reminds me @worn hamlet - I assume this year will be like last year again, where we can update the page contents after the deadline has finished (just not upload new files)?

[icy patrol]

great, what about army of one? if I want the lighting category and I m only one 😩

I have to find a team to split RTX3080 with me lol

[civic dock]

The stream will also be on their Twitch channel, and it's starting very soon.

https://www.twitch.tv/unrealengine

[glacial urchin]

what's the point of starting the jam 1 hour early of the theme

[open cove]

Can anyone form up a team

[carmine kindle]

It's all a big conspiracy to make you watch the stream 👽

[maiden loom]

it's not 1 hour early, it hasn't started yet - the countdown was to the stream

[left gorge]

To allow us to have our last decent meal and take 55 minutes nap

[glacial urchin]

yeah but it's not like we weren't spawned in before the jam start

[left gorge]

Nice

[glacial urchin]

it's just annoying

[left gorge]

Wait until they start to postpone the results stream due to a number of great applications: )))

[solid abyss]

I'm surprised 5.1 didn't get released yet

[civic dock]

Almost 3,000 registered for the jam.

[solid abyss]

last time it was about this much? I faintly remember

[civic dock]

I don't remember. Guess I should've kept track heh.

[graceful echo]

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/presenting-the-winners-of-the-2021-epic-megajam

[civic dock]

Nice find. So over 3,000 last time.

We usually see a bunch of registrations after the theme is announced, too, so it will still go up.

[maiden loom]

was about 4000 registrations last year, I think

[rugged plaza]

What's the theme? I'm at work lol

[maiden loom]

TBD

[rugged plaza]

Oh wait they don't tell u till the end of the livestream

[past gyro]

Yes, they're explaining the rules, how judges will score games and now speaking about modifiers

[civic dock]

This is good advice. It's hard for people to follow because creating your concept is more exciting than creating your pipeline, but it will save you a lot of headache later.

I always recommend setting up your entire build pipeline right away. Create an empty project, package it, publish it to itch.io privately, etc.

Then you can test your game with the itch desktop app and push updates as you make progress.

[marsh sail]

💯 ^^ one game jam we nearly never made due to build issues and stuff

always good to run builds routinely

[civic dock]

Yeah figuring that stuff out last minute adds a lot of stress.

Too many folks wait until their game is ready to submit, then start figuring out packaging and publishing.

Cutting it too close.

[maiden loom]

https://tenor.com/view/cray-lost-it-gone-mad-going-mad-stressed-gif-5502030

[hasty shard]

anyone have any theme predictions before they announce?

[edgy fulcrum]

getting flashbacks to our previous jam?:D Remember being some chaos the last hours

[maiden loom]

something something deeper and deeper, that's my prediction

[civic dock]

OK, I'm ready for the theme announcement.

[solid abyss]

umm I was just thinking... the 7 day rule is important for safety of server.. but can it be waived for Megajam period?

[maiden loom]

haha, that was tame - but I think Kaos is referring to when we jammed together, there were really bad packaging issues 🥲

[solid abyss]

for newbies?

[civic dock]

Topic is ready to be updated. I'll post it in #announcements as well.

[carmine kindle]

I knew it, the theme was a sequence of words that meant things

[graceful echo]

Theme: As Above So Below

interesting

[civic dock]

Shit. That is a very horror-friendly theme. 👀

[analog walrus]

Kinda like it. Think it's one of the better themes they've picked.

[edgy fulcrum]

Nice theme! Looking forward to seeing what people come up with here

[unkempt finch]

Quod est superius est sicut quod inferius, et quod inferius est sicut quod est superius.

That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above.

[past gyro]

It's so much better than one in GMTK this year)) which was Fling That Dice )

[solid abyss]

I think some people will make under water games?

[analog walrus]

There's a lot of interpretations for that phrase. Should be interesting.

[carmine kindle]

Clearly someone needs to make a horror game about the catacombs of paris

[civic dock]

I must resist.

[lusty oar]

Right such a good movie and cool game idea

[civic dock]

Yessss. One of my favorite horror films!

Would be such a creepy game in UE5.

[solid abyss]

resistance is futile, you shall be assimilated by the borg

[civic dock]

Ugh, this theme is so good.

[mortal ore]

so i want to try this game jam

as my first jam the theme reminded me of an old game idea i had when i was a lot younger x3

[analog walrus]

yeah, I was hoping to use the theme as an excuse not to do the jam, now I'm thinking might just go ahead and do it.

[mortal ore]

but is it ok if i use the projects assets in another project after the jam ends?

[analog walrus]

There's all kinds of concepts and mechanics that could be pretty sweet with that theme

[mortal ore]

yeah definitely

[analog walrus]

from philosophical to macro vs micro

[solid abyss]

on the contrary.. a good theme confuses people as well..

[mortal ore]

i cant wait to have people play my game x3

[civic dock]

Honestly this is one of the best themes of any MegaJam.

[analog walrus]

I agree

[civic dock]

Good luck everyone! I can't wait to see what you all make.

[solid abyss]

soloing or with friends?

[spiral sphinx]

Best of luck to everyone!! Regardless of what happens, I hope that you enjoy working on your projects

[mortal ore]

so where and how would i setup for this game jam and these modifiers?

[civic dock]

I must resist.

https://tenor.com/view/control-freak-control-i-need-control-doctor-strange-benedict-cumberbatch-gif-11191866

[glad wing]

what modifiers are y’all thinking of doing? I’m planning on at least Army of One and Procedural Magicians, probably Light It Up, possibly Use It Or Lose It

[mortal ore]

whats army of one?

[glad wing]

solo

[mortal ore]

oh thats my whole career on unreal here o-o

[glad wing]

Tiny but Mighty seems hard, I have no experience trying to get package sizes down

[mortal ore]

wait where do i see all of this

i wanna try all modifers lol

[spiral sphinx]

itch.io

[mortal ore]

its my first jam i wanna go hard or go home D:

[glad wing]

on the Itch page: https://itch.io/jam/2022-epic-megajam

[mortal ore]

thx

[carmine kindle]

I think the games going for the artstation stylized one could end up being super cool

[spiral sphinx]

I was thinking the same thing.

Especially with the theme

[signal crystal]

do we know if it has to be ue5 or can we use ue4?

[vapid thistle]

Any engine version is fine

[signal crystal]

thanks!

[solid abyss]

agree.. and the theme is pretty suitable

[edgy fulcrum]

semi-unrelated but kudos on the stream quality:D From my bad memory there's usually something borking up/mics not working/or weirdly choppy video-framerates and the like - but this has been really smooth! -- Also didn't feel as much as a commercial for different brands but more... personal(?))

[dusty forum]

Question: About submitting early, can you still modify your game after submitting it, given that it is before the deadline?

[analog walrus]

yes

but if you wait until the end and don't make the deadline you have nothing. an earlier build is still better than nothing

[marble coral]

yeah

[formal pasture]

So I am a bit confused, I know we can use sourced assets, but can they only be free assets, or can they be paid assets as well? I am wondering in case if I want to use one of the free monthly assets from the marketplace.

[round epoch]

i'm pretty sure that you can use them

you just have to mention their source, and they wont qualify you for rating in the categories

e.g. you use a car from marketplace, you wont get modelling points for that car

[nocturne ice]

dam ideas ain't flowing

[round epoch]

i would rather start a day late than starting with a bad idea 😛

[nocturne ice]

true

[silk path]

hey everyone did they reveal the theme yet?

and the modifiers and stuff? this is my first game jam

[cerulean fulcrum]

https://itch.io/jam/2022-epic-megajam

[solid abyss]

"AS ABOVE SO BELOW"

[silk path]

oh nice

that sound scool

[glacial moat]

Is anyone looking for a member in their team? (cant find the channel for this particular question)

[graceful echo]

3k people on the dot joined

damn

[carmine kindle]

It's #game-jam-lfg should be right under this one

[silk path]

so we can use any assets from our vault right?

as long as the exe can get uploaded to Itch.io

[civic dock]

Yes, but they won't count towards your score and you need to list them in your submission.

All the rules and info are available on the website.

[silk path]

yea im lookin at it right now.. just a lot to go through

thank you

i heard there's also modifiers or something? what does that mean and where do I found information on that?

oh i think i found it

[glacial moat]

Thanks m8

[loud perch]

what is the theme ?

[nimble sphinx]

heyo, where can we ask official questions regarding the modifiers
the rules on the use it or lose it category are super vague

[glacial moat]

as above so below

thats where creativity comes

haha

[faint dune]

Has anyone received their 1000$ AWS credit yet? I registered last Thursday and they said that they will contact me within two business days.

[glass fossil]

For me instead of the AWS promo code, amazon instead sent some link about startups or something

[hoary trout]

hummmmmm

this theme is hard

[mortal ore]

how does one build a shipping model

[old root]

yeah usually when themes are revealed i cant sleep of excitement cause i have so many ideas.. this time i cant sleep cause i cant think of any x_x

[mortal ore]

i saw a post earlier about pre readying your jam game

[crude ether]

uh, super vague theme this time, really hard to come with ideas 😅

[dim quartz]

There's actually a lot of interesting interpretations

[rugged plaza]

OMG the theme is finally good. This is the best theme ever

[round epoch]

yea, that sums up your statement^

[pure summit]

thank you very much

[mortal ore]

how does one build their game for shipping

D:

[round epoch]

#packaging

[mortal ore]

i like you ben

never change

❤️

[round epoch]

well, you have to change and adapt over time

but the spirit may stay 😄

[civic dock]

Just an FYI: there's a dedicated voice chat here for game jams. #784550666868621342

[lethal atlas]

ong

[hoary trout]

can you share atleast one so we might get inspired ?

[mortal ore]

[mortal ore]

thats the learning process

i already have my idea set

just need to setup my package and itch uplaod

[civic dock]

Here's an idea: Everything "above" affects everything "below"

[round epoch]

yea thats also my first and only interpretation yet 😄

so i guess we see a lot of puzzle games

[civic dock]

Probably.

[mortal ore]

3>

[civic dock]

I'm hoping to see lots of horror games, too.

[rugged plaza]

Bam.

[mortal ore]

imma make a pretty game

[crude ether]

here is a free idea, "as above so below"

[hoary trout]

jeeeeeeeez I love that

[round epoch]

that's a wild interpretation

[civic dock]

"That which has been, will return again. As in heaven, so on earth."

[hoary trout]

now I have wikipedia at my side!

[torpid marsh]

Is it possible to use metahuman?

[round epoch]

yes

you just have to credit all 3rd party assets

[torpid marsh]

tnx

[round epoch]

maybe read their rules...

just an idea

[dim quartz]

The obvious one is reflection. That's all I'm gonna say 😉

[rugged plaza]

Be nice yall

[robust cloak]

Are render targets allowed for the use it or lose it modifier?

[rugged plaza]

@civic dock here we go again 🤣

I am def gonna make something. Dunno what. But I have the exact assets in mind

[civic dock]

I think most people aren't reading the website because it's an overwhelming wall of text with poor visual hierarchy.

And no table of contents.

[robust cloak]

If you two are commenting on my question, render targets aren't addressed in the itch.io page. Is there a better place to be asking questions?

[cerulean fulcrum]

I agree. It was a bit overwhelming at first glance

[civic dock]

I was speaking generally. You're free to ask questions here. That's the primary use of this channel, especially at the beginning of the jam. 🙂

[fresh slate]

hello everyone

please i dont understand the theme

[median pagoda]

I somehow choose to join jams with some kind of mystical meening xD Last time i participated in Megajam it wa sin 2019 and the theme was "the other side of the coin".

[fresh slate]

i dont even know how to form ideas from it 😦

[median pagoda]

It is similar to "Like father, like son" but in a cosmic manner.

well, you can take it from any point of view tho

symmetry, ying-yang, reflection, one is all etc etc

[robust cloak]

As above, so below. As within, so without. As in heaven, so in earth. That which has been, will return again.

[median pagoda]

oh also it's symbol is David's star

[carmine kindle]

Or you can just literally make a game where you play as a fish and a bird at the same time that you control at the same time, you can take it any way you want it

[robust cloak]

There's loads of different variations on the phrase you can find on google.

[median pagoda]

Yeah the beauty of gamejam theme can become anything you can stretch it to.

[civic dock]

Maybe a horror game where you explore deep underground ruins where you encounter something terrifying. When you escape and return to the surface, you see it again and realize you're dead.

[fresh slate]

thanks everyone

from all what u all hv said, i now have a starting point to think

[median pagoda]

Great! Have fun and good luck!

[median pagoda]

?

[formal folio]

question about the jam

can i use unlicensed music from games that already exist

as long as i credit the game its from

[dim quartz]

Most game music is copyrighted so no, probably not

[formal folio]

shiiit

[carmine kindle]

You need to have the rights to legally distribute whatever you want to put in your project. So adding a model of Sonic or Mario or using your favourite band's songs without permission is not okay.

[formal folio]

then whats the code for that dynamedion website

they said theyll leave a code to get stuff for free when the theme is revealed but i didnt see it

[median pagoda]

You can read in detail of the rules on itch.io page

[formal folio]

thanks

[worn hamlet]

A team can win up to one modifier unless there are no other eligible entries for the potential second modifier. So as an example the 2nd place finalist team could win a modifier also. A team can win a modifier even if they aren't an overall finalist (1st, 2nd, 3rd, Student 1st, 2nd, 3rd)

[worn hamlet]

It's under the WeLoveIndies free resources section. Same for the link for the BOOM Library pack

[pine hare]

guys, what is your game about?

[slate salmon]

Can a team win a grand prize along with a modifier prize?

[worn hamlet]

Yes, 1st place or 1st place student can win a modifier. Each finalist team, student or otherwise can win a modifier also

[slate salmon]

Awesome, thanks, just realised you also just said that above so sorry about that lol

[small fern]

can we make a game that ONLY plays as designed on RTX gpus?

[worn hamlet]

Its all good! 🙂

[small fern]

asking because RT modifier

[worn hamlet]

The main thing would be that judges would be able to play the game, which they would be able to if it was RTX. Though it might be worth having an option to disable RT so that others can play your game without needing the hardware

[small fern]

the main reason I'm asking this because making the entry look decent on both RTX on and off can be a challenge on this time constraint

just GI alone makes the scene look completely different

[glass fossil]

does anyone know if you can do multiple entries in the jam?

[maiden loom]

it's pretty all or nothing if you use RTX, but if the judges all have access to the hardware then that's fine I guess

[small fern]

for example, take this RTXGI demo scene:

it's completely different scene without RTXGI

[worn hamlet]

A person can only be on one team, any multiple submissions or individuals in multiple teams would be disqualified

[glass fossil]

ah ok

[worn hamlet]

Folks from NVIDIA are on the panel, so I would hope so! 😄

[maiden loom]

I mean, if certain judges don't have a machine with an RTX2070+, the games won't run

[small fern]

it's just.. if you enter for multiple categories, you wouldn't want the others be left out if they didnt have capable GPUs

[maiden loom]

^