May or may not have updated the forum post with some more sponsor info.... ;)
https://forums.unrealengine.com/unreal-engine/events/1363542
#game-jam-chat
copper carbon
(And that's not all)
rigid fog
Nice, Chris is giving away the course for free for limited spots. He already made that $$ though 😉
copper carbon
Love that folks have the chance to get a boost if they need it ahead of time ❤
copper carbon
Yep
radiant vessel
😍
rigid fog
@copper carbon Oh yeah. I was wondering, any chance of a special MegaJam forum badge?
The past winners definitely deserve the recognition, it's not like winning on some "off" month
copper carbon
Oh, that's a snazzy idea.
rigid fog
That Laptop is pretty sexy
@copper carbon Hmmm
The only thing I have, is... can one person really win both?
If so, I would highly suggest reconsidering that.
(Both Grand Prizes)
And if there's a Third Grand Prize, etc
copper carbon
No, they can't win both. I need to clarify.
rigid fog
But awesome stuff so far.
copper carbon
Writing is hard lol
rigid fog
😉
copper carbon
Maaaaaaybe 😃
rigid fog
I'll be all over that also
copper carbon
haha
rigid fog
But, I am glad I jumpstarted the whole Assembla thing for Epic Jams
Source control is paramount.
@copper carbon That Submission Form going to be a Google Form?
Also, Allegorithmic prize, it's Indie not Pro Live Licenses right? It's not stated.
copper carbon
Nah, it'll be a form in some software we have internally. Google Form doesn't make the kind of form I want :/
copper carbon
Will clarify the Allegorithmic prize later - in talks with them, but likely Indie.
Ha - pulling out all the requests!
rigid fog
I'm surprised you couldn't pull in Rifts or Vives for this.
maiden loom
They did once upon a time, but I don't think Vives are going so freely any more
the time I won the jam, I got a Vive
rigid fog
Aye, but Rifts...
Dime a dozen for devs
But also...while I think the Grand Prizes are awesome, especially since there are two systems this time around. I am sad there are no 1080/ti prizes 😭
I almost feel those two systems could have produced 10+ 1080/tis
compact cedar
If there will be Vives it will be most dissapointing Jam for me...
compact cedar
@copper carbon BTW, rules are a bit vague. No limitations except 5 people team limit.
hushed quartz
@wise apex i'm a programmer, but can do some basic 3d / 2d stuff
wise apex
Already a bit programmer heavy, what do you mean basic ?
rigid fog
@wise apex you guys hurting for artists?
wise apex
Yeah I was kinda on the fence about jamming but we decided we'd give it a go
rigid fog
You and Momo?
wise apex
ye
hushed quartz
by basic i mean i can model most stuff that isn't human/animal like
i can't do nice animations
texturing is also a bit of a pain for me since i dont have a nice package like substance
just using blender
wise apex
Are you using blender? If you're talking about painter you can do that in blender
If you're talking about designer then idk
@rigid fog imma start calling him that
rigid fog
Haha. Yeah, I can't ever remember how to spell his name. And it auto corrected to that. So lol
maiden loom
I too, am still on the lookout for artists
rigid fog
@maiden loom no
You have like 10 people on your CF team
Start kicking people out lol
maiden loom
most of them are uncommunicative
rigid fog
Boot em
maiden loom
I'm going to abandon CF though, it just doesn't work
rigid fog
People are passing you by because of it
Well, they still haven't implemented the things they said they were from my requests, so not sure if they found it harder to do than they thought
maiden loom
I'd shut down the CF team, but I can't actually see a way of doing it
hushed quartz
I can't really see myself getting into CF.. unless they make some radical improvements
maiden loom
You have to kick everyone first? Seems a bit funky
rigid fog
Or just close it and leave a link to something
Probably not. But I don't know what happens it you just leave
maiden loom
if I leave it picks someone else to be admin
maiden loom
I've just left it, and whoever now has admin rights can decide what they want to do with it, heh
compact cedar
Isn't CF kind of alpha stage?
maiden loom
yeah, certainly seems that way
needs work
could be useful in future, but at the moment it doesn't really quite work
compact cedar
i wonder if i should search for a team or made a game just by myself...or just pass by
maiden loom
well, it's all about whether you can commit to a team or not
if you're not sure you can / will, then it wouldn't be fair to join one
somber hazel
I could easily find a team on CF after I immediatly kicked the unresponsive guys. I really don't want to go back to the forum where I have to private message everyone just to find out they already have a team/ don't want to team up with me, because of skill level.
Before Amanda reads the concerns and give up mentioning it in the next Jam forum thread 😐
rigid fog
^
But, I wouldn't mind gamejam sub forums, one for LFM/LFG
They can be hidden and reopened on jam announcements and after jams
maiden loom
I think I'd definitely prefer a user-orientated system where you can see who is actively looking to jam, and read a quick profile on them or whatever
rigid fog
Well
That's one of my suggestion to them
I called it a "Free Agent" system
Instead, they made it so you can rate people
maiden loom
then you could send that person an invite to 'become a team', then said team can still send / receive invites to other people or teams etc
those slashes make that hard to read
fixes
I think the two keys there are A) you can see information about individuals and B) the team setup is more request driven
that way you don't need to have a system where people are bouncing between chat rooms etc
compact cedar
@maiden loom maybe, invite driven is better? i.e. people could send invites to the team, and the recepients could decide which team to join
maiden loom
yeah, that's more or less what I'm going for
but it also makes sense for two individuals to be able to pair up and 'become' a team
somber hazel
The group system should stay (except random people shouldn't be able to join the group), but there should also be a list of people who attend the Jam, and they are divided in their expertise. Next to their name, their should already be a link to previous work that you can open in a new tab (so you just press Middle Mouse Button on all the members of an expertise). You check the tabs and if you find someone that fits, you send them an invite to join the team chat.
compact cedar
well, profile of any kind would be great, now we have nothing
also, comments on profile...
some deserve "-" in karma
somber hazel
I don't think CF has the army to deal with reports
compact cedar
reports? nope...just comments from teammates
somber hazel
But you said - Karma
"This guy gave me a - But all I did was... And it wasn't my fault... Please erase the -"
"But the other guy said"
compact cedar
yeah, not anyone could leave a comment, just teammates
somber hazel
What if only 1 guy had a problem with 1 guy?
compact cedar
and, karma definitely is not what i meant, just comment
in same team?
@somber hazel it's on case if someone joined to team and slacked all the time
somber hazel
But people love to abuse systems
Ability for negative feedback on a single person that are displayed public on your profile need people who check if everything is alright.
compact cedar
positive is good too, people may praise your skills or personality...
compact cedar
yeah, like, "no positive" means something...
somber hazel
It's still better than having 2 individuals who disagree and write something bad about the other person publicly
And you normally see the fake good reviews
elfin spear
glass fossil
Hey there 😄 I'm an engineer at CF, I just wanted to give some updates to everyone participating in Epic MegaJam who has contacted us through the chat bubble
We're deploying two new features (They're live)
- If you kick somebody, they'll no longer be able to join again. (This is because some people kept joining teams they were kicked from)
- The members overflow is fixed 😛
We will be releasing the 'Moderated teams' in the next 24hours.
- To join a moderated team you'll have to apply, the team creator will be able to see who has applied and review their profiles, then accept or decline.
Features we are working on over the weekend:
- Users will be able to showcase the games/projects they worked on outside CrowdForge on their profile. We are aiming to keep things simple, users just need to add the url and we take care of showing a card linking to the page.
- @radiant vessel is currently working on the dark theme 😛 I was just going to make the background black and the text white, but it seems it's more than that. Well, that's the reason I don't touch the CSS 🙈
Also, you can currently upvote people to indicate that they were great teammates. We want to make it easy for everyone and allow users to display their experience (Games, projects, positive feedback, amount of game jams, etc) inside their profile 🙂
We're listening to feedback, so feel free to keep contacting us 😃
rigid fog
@glass fossil Live features= 1) nice!, 2) even better!
Moderated teams will be also very nice
glass fossil
@rigid fog Thank you for all the feedback 😃
rigid fog
😃
glass fossil
I also saw that someone wanted to leave comments on teammates? That's on the pipeline too, but we wanted to test first if people were going to like upvoting teammates
rigid fog
As long as you keep listening, you'll make Crowdforge Jams super awesome
glass fossil
😄
somber hazel
Great to see the robot I was writing to actually has a name 😘
glass fossil
Hahaha beep boop 🤖 ❤ @somber hazel
karmic fiber
Seems like I am the only dork not on crowdforge yet!
maiden loom
@glass fossil - lots of solid improvements ^^
glass fossil
@maiden loom Thank you 😋
compact cedar
@glass fossil it would be nice to see some info on the person, as well ability to join the Jam in LFT state (i.e. not to join a particular team, but to seek for offers)
compact cedar
also, possible time devoted to Jam would be a nice info
glass fossil
@compact cedar with the new updates, you'll be able to see the info of teammates and also the info of team members before joining :)
We're still thinking the best way to add a pool of participants, but we have some ideas 😋
And that's a nice idea 🤔 We'll have a chat about it
Feel free to contact us in the support chat if you have more ideas :)
compact cedar
@glass fossil where is it? on discord?
or the smooch one?
smooch doesn't hold history
glass fossil
@compact cedar Yeah, it's the smooch one 🤔
You can also DM me here on Discord too or contact us through Twitter
compact cedar
i'll stick with discord DM or twitter
steel tulip
Online Game Jam coming up in Nov 3rd - 5th that also doubles as a charity fundraiser for Gamer's Outreach :D
compact cedar
@steel tulip They mentioned series but I could not find any info on past events...
steel tulip
This is the first charity one under the name, we've run other game jams before with MakeGamesMiami.
this is the first of the series more specifically
compact cedar
@steel tulip I see, just FYI Epic Mega Jam will take place in 2-9th of Nov, so people on this Discord probably will be participating in it those days...
steel tulip
that's cool, just sharing our date as well.
we'll prob have another one before June 2018 as well, hoping to fund one of the Gamer Outreach medical carts so it may take a few weekends.
compact cedar
@steel tulip Some places you may share your Jam info: https://itch.io/jams | https://crowdforge.io/jams
steel tulip
❤ thanks!
gaunt copper
Together with @acoustic crater we trying to form a team form MegaJam, as we both more on coding side we looking for some 2D/3D Artists, VFX, Audio etc. anyone interested? ;3
acoustic crater
Basicly Programming & UI Stuff is covered =)
rigid fog
Man
Your team is going to be stacked as well
Love this time of the year
On that note. Need a sound dev for my team. Ours had to work on that main weekend 😦
acoustic crater
So we are 3 People now. 2 Programmers, 1 Artist. Would be nice get another 2 on the Team =)
rigid fog
Nice!@acoustic crater Who's the artist?
acoustic crater
s-ed =)
rigid fog
w00t w00t
Good guy
If my art team hadn't filled up quick, I would have grabbed him 😉
acoustic crater
Mhh he had one condition though =/
We have to get his name right in the Credits 😉
Did you find someone for Sounds @rigid fog ?
rigid fog
@acoustic crater I did. Yeah, that's his fault though.
If someone doesn't correct the spelling or last name/first name order the whole game jam, and lets me call them what I had assumed his name was the whole time...welll...
lol
@compact cedar ^
acoustic crater
Relax :D. Game Jams - Mistakes happen ^^
compact cedar
pwahahah
hollow geyser
Hey, if there are any artists looking to join a team for the megajam, there's one here https://crowdforge.io/jams/epicmegajam/teams/547
dusky vessel
Oh God, the Jam got announced while I was away
I really like this crowdforge site!
@rigid fog your team description on there is really funny, good job
rigid fog
I try
Holding onto a dedicated fifth member has been an interesting dilemma this time around though
Sounds Devs are my weakest link.
fringe furnace
anyone need programmer for megajam?
hushed quartz
or two ?
no?
then i hope the jam theme will be handicap so i can make a vr game about being deaf and blind
maiden loom
haha
compact cedar
@hushed quartz you actually could make such a game, feedback could be made via tactile response
small fern
@glass fossil first of all, you posted that on #game-jam-chat, secondly, you should link to some game page instead, people will not just join random discords they don't know anything about
and 2nd thing only if it's actually UE4 game
glass fossil
Alright thanks
gaunt copper
Out team looking for 2nd artist to fill the team preferably somebody who could do level design, anyone interested?
trail crane
Any teams looking for an Environment artist? Thinking of joining the jam
rigid fog
@trail crane pssshh, wish I had known you were available earlier 😭
trail crane
Haha it was kind of a last min decision to enter
rigid fog
@trail crane Did you run around crowdforge already?
Plenty of teams still looking
Or even, could be nice to try to lead one yourself
Start one, and get peeps you will enjoy working with
trail crane
Hmm I’ll take a look, last jam I lead one and we’re still working on the game now 😂
rigid fog
Isn't that a good thing?
trail crane
I’ll hover around and see if anyone wants me on their team. Kinda don’t want to take charge again haha
rigid fog
What about @gaunt copper 's team?
They are pretty stacked right now
Will be a fun team to join.
gaunt copper
Yea we looking for some level designer i guess as you environment designer it kind of fits 😃
im with @compact cedar and @acoustic crater we also have music composer from LBP community to do music
acoustic crater
@trail crane yeah we looking to fill a slot on the Art side 🙂
wise apex
Env art, ya say?
stray crag
I'm still on the fence whether I want to team up or not
sleek horizon
Same.
Alone, i dont know enough about textures to make them look different and good lol.
stray crag
sometimes during jams it can be a challlenge to work with someone new
sleek horizon
That is always a challenge. Because even if things are perfect in a team, once you add tension like deadlines and miscommunication, it can be testing.
stray crag
mhmm... atm I'm trying to fly through that bp course.. soo much things I didn't know even after working with UE4 for a while
the udemy one
the worst is agreeing to a design ... then realizing it's far out of scope lol
plus Mario Odessy just came out ... so ...
stray crag
I hope there is an asset drop 😍 Thurs!
sleek horizon
Oooh that would be nice.
rigid fog
@sleek horizon 😃
copper carbon
We're doing a tips & tricks for game jams livestream tomorrow <3
https://forums.unrealengine.com/unreal-engine/events/1377715
rigid fog
Cool
somber hazel
With Slapunas? Did you buy him a new pc, so he stops participating? 😄
stray crag
that UE4 course is great even if you are an experienced dev
I love countdown!
I used for a release not too long ago
copper carbon
haha nope! 😛
junior veldt
Hello guys, I've been particpating to the Pixel Horror Jam on Itch.io this year, and wanted to share with you my game page , hope you'll enjoy it :
stray crag
nice
my dream would be to work on a team with collaborative scene editing
so excited to play with houdini indie and substance
@sleek horizon have you used it yet?
sleek horizon
I have not lol
stray crag
sorry I mentioned two different things
participants get a 3mo subscription houdini
I was planning on getting it at some point but this is pretty awesome
assembla is free for a month right?
you mentioned textures though... I think there is an indie version of substance painter
sleek horizon
I have used substance painter
stray crag
ah ok I meant to say one or the other
sleek horizon
Im just not good enough with it to bet the game jam lol
stray crag
yeah... in theory... even you have a basic substance.sbar it should port right into the engine haha
with that plugin
might speed things up
UV mapping would take longer, I've put together low poly stuff in maya pretty quickly
that little room
sleek horizon
nice
currently attending academy of art university in san francisco.
not sure i could learn this stuff on my own lol thats impressive.
stray crag
no that's impressive, what year are you if you don't mind me asking
radiant vessel
New teams popping up on Crowdforge. Those looking to find a team can see them here: https://crowdforge.io/jams/epicmegajam
stray crag
excellent .. lots of work there too eh?
stray crag
I'm in Chicago . I was trying to ask if you get a ton of school work in general universities load up students with work at all times
sleek horizon
yea. This week is actually the most.
copper carbon
Some free materials from the lovely folks over at GameTextures - https://www.gametextures.com/megajam/
glass fossil
Sweet! Can these only be used with games for the Mega Jam or can we use them for any projects?
tall isle
Thanks @copper carbon !!
stray crag
very nice!
copper carbon
@glass fossil - Gonna clarify for you
nova oxide
looking for an artist to join in on our team! https://t.co/xNVslwWPmC
somber hazel
About gametextures: "free to use in your UE4 MegaJam project" I would be very suprised if you can use them anywhere else
worthy mica
Hey Rarp, I saw your ad on the Jam team site, what kind of experience are you looking for?
nova oxide
right now we're full unfortunately. i can let you know if a spot opens up, i'm pretty lenient on experience
compact cedar
Jss, Assemblas way of setting up a repository is...not very comfortable
teal heron
Can not recommend assembla less here
at least assembla perforce
for a simple perforce 5 user 20 workstation trial it is free to self host + server costs
DIgital ocean is 5 dollars a month VPS with 10 dollars a month for 100 GB of block storage is 15 dollars a month for a 5 user perforce server.
They charge 44.50 per user per month billed yearly. Which basically means you are giving up your perforce trial if you could use it
civic dock
I really wish there was a GitHub-like option for Perforce. Self hosting is not a reasonable option for everyone.
teal heron
I would almost offer to build everyone's source control digital ocean droplet for the jam but I know I don't have that sort of time.
Well. Assembla is that.
civic dock
GitHub has free public repos and cheap private repos, though. 😉
teal heron
Ahh so you want Assembla to be good...
That would require perforce pricing to be reasonable.
civic dock
Yeah you're right. It's still bonkers: you can just afford to be bonkers if you're enterprise. lol
teal heron
yeah
like if you make a million dollars sure you can spend a few tens of thousand of source control
civic dock
The one good thing I think comes of Assembla doing this game jam tie in is at least getting more people to think about using source control at all.
teal heron
I do think you have a good point though, game development needs a github we can get behind.
civic dock
Many small teams don't. It's crazy.
Yeah. I've wanted that for a long time. It's why I am so hopeful for Git LFS.
teal heron
and with git lfs you can ALMOST have a perforce free UE4 development
https://github.com/git-lfs/git-lfs/issues/2671 < this is the only real issue that stands in the way of git lfs being usable.
civic dock
Yeah, Git LFS has been improving quite a bit. It makes me optimistic about using GitHub for my next large game project.
teal heron
I have my current smaller UE4 project on github now
civic dock
I use it for small projects, like game jams and such.
teal heron
every time I push I have to unlock all files manually. takes about 2 minutes of really stupid work.
civic dock
Just to test the waters with using Git and UE4.
Yeah... once they nail down locking, that's gonna be huge.
It's a big barrier for a lot of devs coming from Perforce or SVN.
teal heron
Well locking is in...
it just doesn't unlock when you push
you have to issue the commands
civic dock
Right. That's what I meant by nailing it down; making it great.
teal heron
yup all they have to do is fix that and all the solutions they have came up with very directly doesn't fix that
so I am sad
I am not smart enough to know why apparently they can't just unlock them even if the git push doesn't have a post hook
and it makes me want to dig into why
But I am doing 50 billion things at once
civic dock
I know that feeling.
Still on the fence if I should participate in the MegaJam this weekend.
teal heron
I threw my hat into that early about a month ago maybe more like 3 weeks
should be fun!
😄
civic dock
😄
I think it's going to be a great jam.
I want to participate - love game jams - but so much other stuff to do.
And I may just spend the time digging in to my main game project.
hardy lodge
are any teams looking for programmer or animator/rigger for this weeks jam?
if so - hit me up a PM - i have 0 team and am available ❤
sharp berry
I cant wait for tomorrow
sudden snow
Did the previous jams have a theme announced?
lament oar
yeah on the day the jame starts usually
nova oxide
they will announce the theme on the stream tomorrow
glass fossil
How is the jam going?
maiden loom
...it hasn't started yet.
glass fossil
I know
But u have ideas right?
I did one of these for the smithsonian in dc before
was pretty fun
somber hazel
ideas? you mean... what I will eat during the jam?
probably coconut rice every day
maybe I'll go play basketball in my neighbourhood one of the days to get some steam off
should call my homies
wise apex
Whole point of a jam is to come up with, and implement, everything in the allotted time.
innit?
maiden loom
Difficult to have 'ideas' before you know what the theme is
somber hazel
yes, but some people think about using new Unreal Engine technology X with a game around it beforehand, while it is allowed, you are considered being lame if you do so 😐
maiden loom
No problem thinking that you'd like to use X,Y,Z, but that's not really 'an idea'
trying to build a game around a feature before you know the theme is silly though
you can always spot the 'game first, theme afterwards' entries a mile off, it's obvious
nova oxide
i had one jam where the guy was determined to make the entire game before hand and just adjust the theme. just didn't seem like a whole lot of fun and sort of defeated the purpose
maiden loom
some people are only in it for the prizes
you don't want to work with those people
I find they also tend to not know what they're doing anyway
rigid fog
Hmmm
Finalist or Bust is my moto
So, I guess no one work with me
But, granted, I am more interested in just the title and finished product than the prizes, they are just extra goodies on top.
maiden loom
Oh, I'm always in it to win it - it's a competition after all, and it's about doing what you can with limited time
it's a game of sorts, and if you're gonna cheat at the game, what's the point?
rigid fog
Twitter
rigid fog
Why not
small fern
also, got too much other things this week to even properly start it
small fern
could only get started on sunday earliest
rigid fog
I had to frontload everything I had
To make sure I could have a proper start without distractions
small fern
anyways, as usual, will need to see the theme
briefly fast forwarded the game jam stream
I liked the decimator approach slap mentioned
on the only jam that I actually finished, I stuck to low poly models as those were quick to build but one could also use things like modo's mesh fusion or the dynamic boolean system that zbrush 4r8 has
taken that one has either modo 10+ or zb 4r8
those create pretty high poly meshes but one could just run them through some autoretopo tool (both has even fancier than regular decimator like autoretopo)
nova oxide
any designers looking for a group? need one more for ours
rigid fog
What was the Decimator approach?
@small fern
I thought I watched it all, can't remember that part
small fern
slap mentioned that you don't have to do proper low poly topology on your own, you can just run the static mesh assets through decimator which reduces the polygon count
usually that doesn't provide very clean topology
but it's enough for game jam purpose
and it's blazing fast
you can spend ages doing the low poly
if you sculpt things for example, you wouldn't care about the topology at all when you do that
and same with that dynamic subdivision boolean thing
rigid fog
Oh
small fern
both can help you create pretty complex shapes quickly
rigid fog
Gotcha, yeah, that's just typical game art stuff though
I suppose that's good info for non-game-artists
small fern
yeah but most spend their time on doing the topology properly
rigid fog
My advice there would have been instead of trying to even do High to Low poly workflow
small fern
that's actually kinda like decimator
small fern
well I did low poly directly in past
but it depends what you are after of course
too bad simplygons UE4 advanced plugin is still behind paywall
that would have been great speedup for ue4 users
one can still use their separate tool
but it's not as deeply integrated
and you can't do hlods that way afaik
I think they mentioned on robo recall art stream that they mainly did first lod level topology manually (highest poly ingame) and usually most of the other assets were just generated with simplygon
some hardsurface shapes like cars they had to manually lod
but even the UE4's current lod tool can do decent job on car like surfaces in my experience
anyways, I'm getting sidetracked
you wouldn't usually care about lods in game jams even :p
maiden vale
hi, i'm 3d artist
looking for a team from Russia because my English is too bad (:
nova oxide
looking for someone who specializes in audio, pm me please
radiant vessel
Not quite last chance saloon.. you can still find a team for the jam at Crowdforge -> https://crowdforge.io/jams/epicmegajam
rigid fog
Ah damn
Github jam started. Theme was throwback
Hmmmm
I might work on that on the side litle by little. it's one month @small fern
You can do it
small fern
if I struggle to find one week, I will not find full month 😄
tender plover
Seems hard to find a team. Anyone here looking for an artist?
rigid fog
Hard?
And you're a freaking artist?
@gaunt copper @acoustic crater @compact cedar you gents have room?
@tender plover I'm really surprised
tender plover
Well I'm not the best but.
tender plover
Well just found out sadly.
rigid fog
Shoot, most teams were searching for a month
tender plover
Never done one.
rigid fog
Ah
You should
Even if you can't get on a team
Try something small and silly
Gain experience
tender plover
Good idea.
Always worked by myself though. Would be fun to work on a team I think.
Guess they have these pretty often?
acoustic crater
@rigid fog @tender plover nope we got our 5 People filled :D
But also try Forums just in case
tender plover
Ok I'll go check on there.
acoustic crater
not sure if you can scramble a fully new team together
tender plover
Maybe I'll try. 😛 Or wait till next one.
acoustic crater
but you can make one on the go. People can join down the road
tender plover
Ahh! Sweet
wise apex
@tender plover still looking for a team?
tender plover
ya!
tender plover
ya
maiden loom
FML, a one month jam? Is this for the unemployed only? I think that would literally kill me. One week is brutal as it is.
wise apex
Aren't there 3+ month jams?
maiden loom
Surely at that point it isn't even a jam any more?
That's just called 'making a game'
wise apex
Yeah it does kinda get too long there
But hey they call it a jam
Perhaps I'm mistaken though
maiden loom
I'd call that employment, lol
wise apex
Gotta be paid to be employment
maiden loom
Unpaid internships are very much a thing, sadly
rigid fog
@maiden loom you don't need to do the whole month lol
wtf
I am pretty sure this is for those who CAN'T commit for the entire month
But yeah, I'm sure there are some that can/do commit the whole month. Solid Crunch.
Unpaid internships...not here in the USA
Not always anyway
Majority are paid.
Some states ALLOW unpaid...
but there are a million stipulations and rules
violet kestrel
Very much a big thing in the UK
maiden loom
A lot.of European universities require internships to be unpaid
rigid fog
You have a lot of "bad" stuff when it comes to gamedevs
but other the flipside
You have a lot of "good" also
Mainly a shitton more studios
maiden loom
It's a part of the degree and you can't be paid for the work
violet kestrel
I was in an unpaid internship role, they said they'll do a 2 month unpaid test (Can't think of the word) then they'll potentially look into hiring me after the fact
Then they got really mad after I quit after a month
violet kestrel
not test
maiden loom
Lol, two month 'test'
violet kestrel
like a uh
rigid fog
Like a trial?
wise apex
They got mad cause you figured it out
maiden loom
Dodgy af
violet kestrel
yeah they took 3 of us on right after graduating
rigid fog
They have those here in the states a lot... Contract-to-Hires I think it's called
violet kestrel
they must just rollover the unpaid interns, 2 months after 2 months with different people
but is that, you will get a job at the end?
rigid fog
Anyway, every internship that I could apply to was Paid
violet kestrel
You replying to me Placeholder or Victor?
wise apex
Vic
violet kestrel
ah
wise apex
Contract-To-Hire is usually a temp paid job, isn't it?
violet kestrel
So they work as paid temp then become permanent after the trial?
(If they decide to keep you)
wise apex
That's my understanding
violet kestrel
I'm on CrowdForge for the megajam, how is it gonna work with these teams who have like 9 members on it? The limit is 5, no?
or is it max 5 who can receive prizes, but unlimited number of people who can work on the game?
violet kestrel
ah
Wonder if they know that lol
@rigid fog Do you use SVN or Perforce or something with your team to work on your game?
(Or how do you get assets from your artists / sound guys etc.)
rigid fog
@violet kestrel Yo
Perforce depot from Vultr
I set one up two night ago
It was relatively painless following Allars guide
I did make some changes
Because I wanted updated versions
violet kestrel
is it expensive?
rigid fog
10/month
$10/month USD
I just paid $0.68 to them
For the month of Oct
Because those bastards need to keep the light on
But really
violet kestrel
lol
rigid fog
It's pretty nice
violet kestrel
$10 isn't too bad I guess
rigid fog
Technically it's "always on" 24/7 hours
rigid fog
So you'll 99% of time Max Out on the hours (so your monthly rate)
maiden loom
Unlike Assembla, whose prices are absurd, lol
rigid fog
Yeah fuck Assembla
They were good, when I brough them into #ue4jam
Then...they got greedy as hell and I said "bye"
maiden loom
Something like $45 a month per user for a 1GB repo
rigid fog
I did give them a nice long email of how shitty I thought it was for them to do that
I just have principles
I can't deal with businesses like that
@maiden loom nah, it's unlimtied now
Which is..meh
Used to be a 500GB limit for $40/month
Now it's $45/user/month for unlimited storage
But their servers are shit sometimes
@violet kestrel Other than Vultr, check out #source-control
If your other teammates fail at VCS
you can just import their assets from Drive or Dropbox
It's up to you how you want to spend your time
I choose not to do anyone else's work for them
So they either know how to use Perforce or they aren't part of the team
violet kestrel
thats what I'm worried about with making a team with people I don't know, they might not know how to use version control
rigid fog
Is this your first jam?
violet kestrel
because I'd be doing programming so would need artists, designers and audio
no
I entered the one before last with a group of friends from uni and it was awful
violet kestrel
because we had 3 programmers 1 artist with no version control so it was just the worst
rigid fog
lol
violet kestrel
basically doing what you said, only not even using dropbox or drive
rigid fog
yeah, that's not good
violet kestrel
but by fucking sending everything on Skype
Be easier just entering on my own lol
However: any artists / designers still looking, hmu
rigid fog
check the forums and crowforge
pop into random teams
and ask people to come with you
¯_(ツ)_/¯
It's a FFA out there
violet kestrel
yeah im on it now
crisp coyote
so this is my first jam, and I was wondering about what is fair and what is not. So is it fair and exepted to copy and paste parts of a BP from another project, or do you have to make everything new? also how is this enforced?
rigid fog
@crisp coyote You should not CP anything from a past project
However...
If you do. Disclose it
They will find out
😃
GameJam Police is pretty good
crisp coyote
Also, do people plan the game beforehand, and then skin to theme, or do you make it up as it starts?
rigid fog
No, no, yes
violet kestrel
Plus, if you're still learning the engine etc. use this as an opportunity to learn more about it, maybe find better ways to do whatever mechanic you have in another project
rigid fog
Right, I make every jam a learning opportunity
violet kestrel
I try to plan game james beforehand, but it always changes when you see the theme
so there's no point lol
becuase the themes aren't like: Space
violet kestrel
They're basically riddles, so you have to use your imagination
crisp coyote
ok.. thanks that's helpfull.. next question.. everyone on my team works fulltime, so we will only be able to do some work after hours.. is it still worth it?
rigid fog
omfg, I would love it
violet kestrel
it better not be space, stop wishing it
rigid fog
or something sci-fi ish
violet kestrel
sci-fi yes, space no
bronze mirage
What time is the theme announced/when does the jam start?
violet kestrel
@crisp coyote The jam runs for a week, so you'll have plenty of time to work on it
@bronze mirage 14 hours 39 minutes
for both questions
crisp coyote
yeah but work also runs that week and so does wife and 2 crazy kids 😃
bronze mirage
Oh ok, thanks
violet kestrel
I mean you'll just have to do stuff on it whenever you have free time
crisp coyote
well is it fair to say that most people will have decided atleast what kind of game they will be making?
violet kestrel
When you're not developing, i..e working, think of things you can implement, how you would implement it, so that when you have free time, you can quickly add it to your game
crisp coyote
like along the lines of.. a fps with a jumping puzzle in it.. for example
violet kestrel
I mean, the last game jam theme was Blessing In Disguise
So I guess you could somehow integrate that with an FPS jumping puzzle somehow
just have to be creative
crisp coyote
ok
so if you are fixed on making a top down shooter, you could if you are clever enough to tie it to the theme?
crisp coyote
do they give rules like has to have more than 3 levels, or has to have a cutscene or a panda wearing socks?
violet kestrel
Yeah you could do a top down shooter if you'd like for any game, as long as you can relate it back to the theme
rigid fog
We focused on gameplay and some art
violet kestrel
Your game was hard af
rigid fog
😃
violet kestrel
I remember playing it
rigid fog
It was meant to be
violet kestrel
No rules on the creativity side of it Varkie, you have complete freedom on that
crisp coyote
the robots one?
violet kestrel
just no more than 5 members in your team
rigid fog
Got a fresh team this time though, last time was a fresh team as well
It's always nice working with new devs
@crisp coyote ya
violet kestrel
man I wish they did the monthly jams, I hate these seasonal ones
rigid fog
Yeah, I wish they went back to monthly jams as well
violet kestrel
The 3 month gap between them is a killer
crisp coyote
what becomes of these games.. do you guys dev them further, or forget them?
rigid fog
depends
crisp coyote
so is a poster/gameart part of the submission?
rigid fog
Most teams are not the greatest shape at the end of the jam
crisp coyote
lol
rigid fog
😃
violet kestrel
Plus if you dev them further it's usually better to just start over, everything is rushed and unoptimised
rigid fog
Also
You run into legal issues
Especially if devs are worldwide
There's a lot to think about
crisp coyote
I'm doing this with work buddies.. we do advertising deadlines all the time.. hope this doesn't wreck our relationship 😃
rigid fog
...
violet kestrel
well as long as they declare themselves out of the project, you should be fine
rigid fog
I say, you should make sure you have the lowest expectations going in
Speaking of expectation, make sure you UNDERSTAND each other's expectations
violet kestrel
Dont overcomplicate your game idea, keep it simple
rigid fog
I see this a lot. Some teams assume one thing, and then find out otherwise days later.
crisp coyote
I told my team.. first rule is to have fun and learn.. if we get noticed.. bonus
violet kestrel
Everything sounds easy in your head til you come to develop it.
rigid fog
Also, understand that not everyone can put in the same amount of time and effort that you will
Or that you might not be able to
crisp coyote
also I've never made a game b4 and we are making a vr game.. so it might not even launch in the end
crisp coyote
oh on that note.. we only have a vive.. is that ok, or does it have to run on oculus too?
nope
lol
love them bps though
violet kestrel
I don't believe there are system requirements for your game
crisp coyote
cant code a single line
violet kestrel
You need to be able to package the project though into an exe
crisp coyote
oh music.. is free library music ok?
violet kestrel
Yeah, royalty free assets are okay to use, as long as you state where you got it from when you post your submission
crisp coyote
wow, getting realy exited.. thanks for the tips guys!!
copper carbon
I GOT THEM DONE EARLY! @rigid fog
rigid fog
@copper carbon rofl
You stayed up late Miss
Better get some sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a crazy day.
copper carbon
It is - excited to get the jam going 😄
rigid fog
But since you put that effort in, I'll look them over tonight before getting to bed to see if I can catch anything silly
rigid fog
@copper carbon Did you test out the submission form?
If not, want me to right now?
ah, the link is in the rules
copper carbon
I tested it myself, but you're welcome to give it a go.
copper carbon
Mmm, I could.
rigid fog
@copper carbon Hmmm
So...
You have a little bit of danger
You don't require login it looks like
Or one per login ?
copper carbon
Not everyone necessarily has a google account. I don't want to force that.
copper carbon
¯_(ツ)_/¯
rigid fog
Oh
copper carbon
docs have filters 😃
rigid fog
Do you state you only get one submission per team?
Or are you allowing multiple submissions?
And are you closing submissions at 3PM Thursday?
copper carbon
One submission - that's part of the rules. And it closes at 3pm on the 9th
small fern
there's a new submission setup?
I don't think I'll attend, but curious still
(I'd only have 4 days)
copper carbon
Doing a submission form. I'll still create a thread, so you all can share and chat about your games.
Dooooo it
😛
small fern
but if the theme gives me some nice ideas, I might give it a go
rigid fog
If only Jams were every month
small fern
😄
rigid fog
😭
copper carbon
yeah yeah
copper carbon
Probably Q1
rigid fog
Forgot it was already Nov
copper carbon
Right O.o
rigid fog
So probably Feb
rigid fog
Birthday Jam
copper carbon
Yaaaaas
glass fossil
How would anyone know if content was made before the jam?
glass fossil
Wouldn't it just be their word against others?
rigid fog
Game Jam Police has the Final Word
glass fossil
Are you part of the fuzz?
Next question: if I develop a technique to do something (like a shader) beforehand, can I still use it and do I need to disclose that?
rigid fog
The Game Jam Police is a secret organization, members of the GJP do not know each other's real identities.
You need to disclose anything you do before the jam.
That's stated in the rules
And mentioned at least 5 times
Wll maybe not 5
glass fossil
That's not what I'm asking
glass fossil
Say I invent a cel shader but not for the purpose of the game jam
glass fossil
Maybe I invented it four months ago
rigid fog
SO, yes, you have to disclose it
I don't understand the confusion
Anything that is done prior to the game jam needs to be disclosed.
glass fossil
Well it's like saying I can't use OOP because I learnt it before the game jam
rigid fog
...
It's like learning how to breathe?
Or type on a PC?
I mean, come on now...
You're being silly.
glass fossil
Well then where's the line?
rigid fog
The line is drawn and made simple
rigid fog
Any asset created prior to the jam needs to be disclosed.
Any marketplace assets as well
Or anything that you did not physically create during the jam
well, I guess physically is a bit over, but you need to touch a mouse and keyboard, so it's not a stretch
This isn't rocket science though
glass fossil
So I can implement a technique I developed and I don't need to disclose it
Because it's not an asset, it's just a concept
glass fossil
I'm just asking for clarification because it's ambiguous
rigid fog
Like I said, not really hard concept to understand.
If you already know good way to make cel shaders, cool. Remake one in the one week jam.
glass fossil
And that wouldn't be cheating, correct?
sudden snow
Think of this like a 3D model or something. Remake it for the jam
rigid fog
Yeah
glass fossil
Yeah that's what I'm thinking of it as
sudden snow
And I think it's just ethics that's going to stop anyone from cheating.
rigid fog
Without disclosing it
glass fossil
I have the knowledge to make it, I just need to remake it during the jam
rigid fog
Nope, Game Jam Police will be on the prowl and in force.
glass fossil
I definitely won't just copy assets from older projects
sudden snow
Then I think you're good to go.
glass fossil
🙂
sudden snow
However, I think the best way to jam is to have a simple idea that is experimental and to then polish and juice the crap out of it.
glass fossil
Yeah I'm planning on doing that but doesn't hurt to have some shaders going on 😃
crisp coyote
my understanding and I'm a noob so take it with loads of salt: If you copy and past its cheating, but if you remake something you've learned then how can that be cheating? like I've been watching tutorials on how to make a score system, and a start button, stuff like that. I've done those tutorials in unreal, but when game jam comes, I will re create lots of those BPs as i need them in my game
I think the same would aply to your cell shader. re-build one using what you've learned from past projects, and if you find you're running out of time and need to copy past.. disclose it
I'm doing a vr project, and also planning on a cell shader.. it seems to make sense when you don't hafe loads of time to tweak every shader in your scene
have
hybrid jewel
It would also be based on the magnitude of the copying. I think a shader or material isn't as bad as if you just modified your existing game prototype and submitted that.
Obviously it's best you don't use any existing assets, but if you need to make a cel shader and you've made one before, reusing that same logic (albeit in a new material with parameters adjusted for your jam game) should be okay.
small fern
ok
the thing is
everyone who has won a game jam has used their prior knownledge on how to make 3d models, animation, rigs, texturing, code etc
there's nothing wrong about that, I'd go as far as that being mandatory if you want to succeed
the line is drawn when you copy/paste your past work
if you redo the mesh, or shader from scratch during the jam, that's perfectly fine
it's just, if one has such specific shader with fine tuned settings, it's probably too tempting to just copy paste it
it's not likely that you'd get caught but you'd know you cheated yourself
and in the end, some cell shader isn't going to be the thing that makes your game win the jam
bit late for this jam (forgot about this really) but I'd really want to have some templates to be allowed
I don't mean the stock templates but one that has everything needed for the jam entry, basically empty project with hooks on menu and settings etc so you don't have to waste your time on those or disclose some existing quick setup
some people use them in every game jam without disclosing it, some have even won with premade menus that they didn't disclose
IMO it would be fair to allow that kind of content that's strictly generic framework
people who cheat with that get many hour advantage as their starter project is already in version control and every team member has it synced at the moment the jam starts
@copper carbon ^ just something to think about for future jams
maiden loom
we've always done our own menus, they don't take that long in the grand scheme of things
small fern
it's more important for solo teams tbh
5 man teams have 5x time
sure there's organization that takes away some of that
but still
proven badge
aye
robust basalt
👌 😃 👍
copper carbon
How many ue4jams have you all participated in before?
proven badge
strictly ue4 without test runs - 11
nova oxide
ue4 jams, none. game james, a couple
stable kiln
think i done about 14 or something
somehow i never won, i think the russians are manipulating the votes 😛
maiden loom
hehe
maiden loom
previous jams have been held over Eid as an example
maiden loom
This jam is actually on a UK holiday, but it's a one nighter and isn't an important one, so
rigid fog
There's 7 on my website
maiden loom
¯_(ツ)_/¯
rigid fog
plus the one megajam me and @maiden loom were on
that's 8
Probably a few more than didn't make it to my portfolio
Oh yeah, that 24 hour megajam entry last year
because of damn Hurricane Matthew
maiden loom
D:
rigid fog
@copper carbon Give up?
Who gave up?
Hurrican Matthew literally came right at me that week
small fern
"[4:36 PM] Allshar: attempted 2 more but gave up during the first 24h"
rigid fog
Knocked power out for almost the whole week
Ohhhhhhhhhhh
lol
But @tepid light is talking about solo jam "give-ups" right?
small fern
I've only done two serious attempts to finish the ue4 jam so far, usually my experiements start to sidetrack themselves and I get to tech experimenting phase and then I realize I don't have time to actually do the thing
still bit bummed that my pinball stalled due to physx issues (they took me 1.5 days to solve as I didn't want to work around, was stubborn to find the root cause rather than make the game work)
the one I actually finished was too rushed too, missed most of the content as I got caught up by ue4's root motion issues
copper carbon
@rigid fog hahaha - what?? you didn't keep working through a hurricane. tsk tsk
stable kiln
only skimmed a bit trought the new phat setup , wonder if that might give probs if i go 4.18 😛
rigid fog
😦
copper carbon
I kid, I kid.
rigid fog
Next time I will be better prepared
copper carbon
The new PAE (Phat is more fun) should be easier to use
copper carbon
show it who's boss!
stable kiln
if its not a tornado with sharks in it...
tepid light
Yea, I gave up in solo jams. Either didnt have an idea or it completly didnt work.
crisp coyote
that gif hurts mah face
sage spoke
1 hour 30 minutes. It's gonna be fun
rigid fog
Time is slipping away
I need to make sure I get all the diapers I need ready
Need to call the maid over for cleanup
And find my MakeGame button
stray crag
solo!
small fern
always go Han way
rigid fog
@stray crag Skillset?
stray crag
oh yeah ... Intermediate BP/C++ , Beg - level editor/modeler , pretty savy with audio 😃
mostly modeled in Maya
and the editor 😃
sage spoke
Same here. I'm solo too 😄
hushed quartz
i'm also solo.. c++ bp etc..
gaunt copper
:>
sage spoke
Keep it up @rigid fog
gaunt copper
bodies ready? :p
sage spoke
And you will find 5 members real quick
gaunt copper
i can tell you it not so easy ;p or else oyu hunt for random people
arctic widget
Good Luck To Everyone Participating 👍 😃
stray crag
^ smart
stray crag
I will say this... the udemy course hint by @copper carbon was a godsend. I forgot I had the course and Christian zooooms!
only thing is... that course is not for beginners
sage spoke
Which one @stray crag ?
Making two games with Unreal Engine 4.. That one?
Btw.. 20MINUTES?!
wise apex
@stray crag Did you team up with zephy?
sage spoke
Nopes. He hadn't teamed up with me..
wise apex
might be interested in audio for my jam team
wise apex
2 programmers; I can do a bit of art as well but nothing really great. Less jam xp than work xp for both of us.
wise apex
I can do weak af airplanes lol
stray crag
ah @wise apex might get crowded 😃
wise apex
Did this untextured monstrosity. https://i.gyazo.com/ca0a3ba61919454fab6a3ab8ca58eb12.mp4
not my design, but interesting to attempt
wise apex
Yeah if you're a primary programmer it might be crowded
Another design, again not mine - https://i.gyazo.com/a255a303cb549c3aa19976f3d4229292.mp4
stray crag
nice, almost looks like a condor
wise apex
Yeah sorta
stray crag
did this in maya a while back
copper carbon
@stray crag glad it was helpful! 😄
stray crag
this was all in engine with the archvis content
lament oar
Just read all the nice goodies you get as a participant and it kind of makes me wish I had applied. Although that rule about not using Default Materials rules me out as Im a programmer and even my custom textures look like default materials :p
stray crag
it's a massive scene
sage spoke
3 2 1 LIVE!
stray crag
oo
sage spoke
Provide me the link to livestream please!
wise apex
stray crag
still in the lobby 😃
sage spoke
@wise apex Thanks
sudden snow
Listen, when the theme is announced, please just post it here. I'm gonna go brew some tea.
sage spoke
Same here. I am gonna sleep now.
grizzled zenith
so what does it mean lol
orchid sphinx
however vast the darkness, we must supply our own light
cedar spindle
I feel like the "we" in theme makes it.... interesting.
sudden snow
Thanks! @wise apex
wise apex
GL, HF
maiden loom
that theme D:
civic dock
Longest game jam theme I've ever seen.
rigid fog
Theme is awesome