作者：Ramine Darabiha

不久前，来自80多个国家的开发者聚集在了Global Game Jam并将在48个小时内创造出超过5000款游戏。

Global Game Jam(from axis3d)

在过去4年里，我曾在不同地方担任过评审。所以每一年我都能看到一些团队陷入同样的问题中并导致他们迷失了自己最初的目标。所以我将在此提供一些帮助你们绕过那些重重障碍，自信地进行演示并最终递交一款出色游戏的建议。

不要设定过高的目标

Game Jam是关于花48个小时去创造一个奇怪且荒谬的游戏理念。但大多数情况下人们只会看到你最终展示的游戏演示版本。我在Game Jam中最常看到的便是，人们在花了48个小时后却未能成功递交一份可行的演示版本。

这便是你在这48个小时内能做的所有事。所以不要为自己设定过高的目标。专注于使用你所知道的技术和工具。很多人都想尝试自己在日常生活中不能做的一些特殊想法，但前提是你要确保自己不需要面对太多不知道的内容。坚持使用你所清楚的工具和函数库。不要做出太过狂妄的承诺。

但这并不意味着你应该采取一些简单的方法并创造一个山寨理念。想想为你的游戏创造一个出色的演示版本需要什么，然后便着手去创造它。当然你也可以为你的游戏创造一个疯狂的程序关卡生成器，但如果这会阻碍你去传达那些人们最终能够尝试的内容的话，你便需要果断放弃它。

最出色的团队通常都会在一开始便创建一个简单的原型。这将为他们留出足够的时间去优化游戏，测试游戏并预演演示版本，从而确保他们所最终能够传达出最棒的内容。

不要忽视项目管理

大多数团队都会忽视项目管理。他们只想开心且轻松地度过这个周末，而做计划会让他们觉得过于严肃。那些不喜欢计划的人更希望能够直接进入编程过程中。

但如果缺少一列可交付内容，你便很难去计划你在今后48个小时内需要做的所有事。你将没有明确的截止时间或你将很难判断自己所递交的内容是否出色。你的团队也将不清楚需要创造些什么，

所以你应该为自己确定一个明确且详细的目标。当然也不要放弃睡眠。活动是从周五开始，而很多人在午夜时分却仍不清楚自己项目的需求。

还有一个问题便是，如果没有计划，有些团队成员从一开始便不知道如何为你的项目添加有价值的内容。他们会盲目地开始绘制角色，创造环境模型，但之后却发现程序员需要的是基于不同分辨率的内容。而如果你事先能花一个小时做计划的话，整个团队便能够有序地开始工作。做计划的另一个优点便是它能够帮你判断哪个团队成员有空，从而让他们能够参与音效，QA或演示版本规划等工作。

每个人都在同一个房间里

将随机的人组成一个团队的一大挑战便是你将面对拥有各种经验水平和不同交流能力的人。而你需要尽早识别出这些。

无效的交流总是会衍生出许多不同意见。在某些情况下，团队会分散到不同房间，有些甚至会在自己家里工作。而这也意味着一旦你遇到问题，便没有人能够马上提供给你帮助。所以你应该确保所有人都清楚自己致力于什么工作以及为什么致力于这样的工作。

有时候这也会导致一些糟糕的动态行为，即团队成员将不能有效地进行合作，他们会做出一些尖锐的评价，否定某些理念，或者根本不去听取别人的看法；很多时候你都是因为这种情况而浪费掉大把时间。你参加这一活动只是因为有趣，所以请确保能够与其他成员进行有效地交流，如此你们才有可能递交出最棒的游戏！

努力做到“足够优秀”

很多人认为很难递交一些“足够优秀”的内容。当你知道你所创造的内容并不完美时你也很难突然停下来了。所以你应该确保自己能够设定一个有关质量的目标。你的图像是否真的值这么多帧？是否有人会注意到这样的着色器？

一个有问题的决策类型便是群组决策：为你的团队和项目取个适当的名字，并确定这里需要怎样的角色。专注于完成这些内容。如果发生一些不可预见的问题，也不要花大把时间去尝试着解决问题，你应该与团队成员进行交流。不要被这样的问题困住。

所有的一切都是关于演示版本

最后，但也同样重要的是创造一个优秀的演示版本。毕竟这是人们能够看到的有关你的项目的唯一内容。确保你能在发布前好好测试它。认真规划你的展示，决定你要呈现怎样的功能以及如何去呈现它们等等。确保你能够事先做些练习。在你之前玩游戏的计算机上操作你的演示版本。并确保音效的有效运行！

最后祝你的Game Jam顺利！

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

5 Tips for the Global Game Jam

by Ramine Darabiha

This weekend, developers from nearly 80 countries will gather to create over 5000 games in 48 hours at Global Game Jam.

During the past four years, I’ve served as a judge at various locations. Each year, I see teams running into the same problems, causing them to miss their objectives. So here are some tips to help you get around those blockers, shine during your demo and help you deliver an awesome game.

Aim Low

Game Jams are all about taking 48 hours to create a whacky, silly game idea. But most of the time, the only thing that people will see of your game is the demo at the end. One of the most underwhelming and common feelings I’ve seen at Game James is to see people who have worked on something for 48 hours fail to deliver a working demo.

There’s only so much you can do in 48 hours. Aim low. Focus on using technology and tools you know. Many people want to try out some funky idea that they don’t get to do in their every day life, but make sure you don’t throw (too many) unknowns in there. Stick to tools and libraries you know. Don’t over commit.

This doesn’t mean you should take the easy route and make a me-too idea. Think about what’s needed for a good demo of your game, and build that. It’s ok if you want to build a crazy procedural level generator for your game, but if that’s going to block you from shipping something that people can play at the end of the weekend, you might want to scope it down.

The best teams often have a simple prototype working on the first night. This leaves them enough time to polish the game, playtest it and rehearse a good demo to really let their game shine.

Don’t Ignore Project Management

Most teams ignore project management. They feel like having fun on the weekend, so planning feels too serious and overkill. Those who dislike planning prefer jumping into the code and request work as they go.

But without a list of deliverables, it’s really difficult to plan everything that will be needed in the next 48 hours. You won’t have a clear cut off point, or a good sense of how much content you can deliver. Your team won’t have a clear idea of what needs to be built.

Set a clear, detailed objective. Don’t under estimate your need to sleep either. Since the kick off is on Friday evening, people tend to be surprised when midnight hits and they’re still unclear on their project’s needs.

Another problem is that without planning, some team members won’t know how to add value right from the start. They’d start drawing characters, modeling environments and such, only to find out later that the programmer needed something in a different resolution. If you spend one hour planning ahead, your entire team can start working. Another upside is that this will help identify which team members might have some free time, so maybe they can help find sound effects, QA the game or help plan the demo.

Everyone in the Same Room

One challenge with piecing a team of random people together is that you’re bound to have people of varying levels of experience and different styles of communication. It’s important to identify this early.

Many disagreements come from ineffective communication. In some cases, teams scatter across different rooms, some even work partly from home. In practice, this means that whenever you run into a blocker, no one can help you. Make sure everyone knows what is being worked on and why.

Sometimes, this can result in bad dynamics, and as team members fail to collaborate, people make snarky comments, shoot down ideas, or don’t listen; a lot of time can be wasted because of this. You’re there to have fun, so make sure you work on communicating well with each other so you can deliver the best game!

Go With “Good Enough”

A lot of people find it difficult to deliver something just “good enough.” It’s difficult to pull the plug on a feature when you know it’s not quite perfect. Make sure you set a goal in terms of quality. Is your art really worth having this many frames? Is anyone going to see this nice shader?

One type of decision that seems to be especially problematic is group decisions: finding the right name for your team, your project, what kind of characters should be in there. Focus on getting things done. If something unexpected happens, don’t just try to fix it for hours, talk to your team. Don’t get stuck.

It’s All About the Demo

Last but not least, make a good demo. After all, it’s often the only thing that others will see of your project. Make sure you playtest it before you ship. Plan your presentation, what features you’re going to show, how you’re going to do this. Make sure you rehearse things. Do your demo from a computer you’ve played the game on before! Make sure the sound works.

Good luck and enjoy the jam!?(source： gamasutra)