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Last year we had an open google doc for diversifier suggestions in the #wizardjam channel. That was then narrowed down to 10 and we used those. We could perhaps do that again?

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Can you maybe build a "twitch decides diversifiers" game?

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I really like the idea of Holiday themed diversifiers. <- I don't like that spell checker is angry about the word diversifiers

This keeps the semi-annual jams unique, but based on a familiar theme.

As far as teams go, I like the opt in option with people that are looking to team up pitching any idea they have and noting their skill set.

 

Personally, I prefer to work solo, because the time I can allot can be quite sporadic, and I don't want to let someone down.

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OK, I think we're ready to set a date!

 

Saturday, November 26, 12:00PST/15:00EST/20:00GMT - Sunday, December 11, 21:00PST/24:00EST/28:00GMT (please don't actually stay up till 4am, we will have late submissions)

 

Thanks for your input everybody, I'll get to work on resource/team-building threads soon!

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1 hour ago, elvaq said:

OK, I think we're ready to set a date!

 

Saturday, November 26, 12:00PST/15:00EST/20:00GMT - Sunday, December 11, 21:00PST/24:00EST/28:00GMT (please don't actually stay up till 4am, we will have late submissions)

 

Thanks for your input everybody, I'll get to work on resource/team-building threads soon!

 

Starting on my birthday 🎉

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I've been looking forward to the new Wizard Jam. Haven't produced jack-shit since the last jam, and I need the kick-in-the-pants of the constrained time-limit to start gamedevving again. I'd prefer if we could pick a title from any of the network's shows again tho(got my eye on another Idle Weekend title), and also I'd rather not have to make it Winter/Xmas themed. :|

 

However, if these restrictions remain, I can live with it.

 

On 10/18/2016 at 1:46 AM, elvaq said:

I had an idea where people could submit a single game pitch and then the pitches would be collected and displayed together to help team-forming people say "hey, i like the sound of that. let's do a team."

 

That's pretty much how it worked for the last jam. I pitched my "In Search of Paradise" idea, listed what I needed help with, and was approached by 3 people who wanted to help out. Root, Akidu and Badatstuff contributed 3d models, audio, and music, respectively. I loved working with those guys, and I'm favor of just doing it like that again. :)

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For the possible Excel sheet of skills, is there any interest in doing it kind of like Amnesia Fortnight? Ie, people who want to lead, or who have an idea, pitch them, we have a list of pitches and then people sign up for teams they are interested in, then there could be some back end sorting from an admin. I think just listing skills can make it hard because you're choosing a random person, whereas people might feel stronger about supporting an idea. 

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We had some pretty valid objections to the date due to exams and conflicts with Ludum Dare so I'm going to move the date ahead by a week to

 

Saturday, November 19, 12:00PST/15:00EST/20:00GMT - Sunday, December 4, 21:00PST/24:00EST/28:00GMT
(please don't actually stay up till 4am, we will have late submissions)

 

6 hours ago, Rilen said:

For the possible Excel sheet of skills, is there any interest in doing it kind of like Amnesia Fortnight? Ie, people who want to lead, or who have an idea, pitch them, we have a list of pitches and then people sign up for teams they are interested in, then there could be some back end sorting from an admin. I think just listing skills can make it hard because you're choosing a random person, whereas people might feel stronger about supporting an idea. 

 

Not sure if I was clear enough on this but the Team Builder form/sheet isn't just for pitching ideas! Everyone should enter skills and preferences there, regardless of game ideas. I'm going to open up the sheet for mass editing too so people can just use that if they want (i hope that doesn't break the form, we'll find out!)

 

Also we have some fun ideas in the cooker for other community & team-building events before the jam kicks off so stay tuned. Don't want to move to admin-picked or auto-picked teams if we can avoid it so let's see what we can do spontaneously, eh?

 

13 hours ago, Henke said:

I've been looking forward to the new Wizard Jam. Haven't produced jack-shit since the last jam, and I need the kick-in-the-pants of the constrained time-limit to start gamedevving again. I'd prefer if we could pick a title from any of the network's shows again tho(got my eye on another Idle Weekend title), and also I'd rather not have to make it Winter/Xmas themed. :|

 

The main theme is now definitely Idle Thumbs Network Cast Titles and winter/holiday stuff has been moved into a potential Diversifier

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13 hours ago, elvaq said:

The main theme is now definitely Idle Thumbs Network Cast Titles and winter/holiday stuff has been moved into a potential Diversifier

 

Should this maybe not be called a Winter Wizard Jam, then? Isn't it really "Wizard Jam November 2016"? Perhaps they should only get a prefix if there is a main theme different to 'cast titles (e.g. the Summer Wizard Jam or Robot Apocalypse Wizard Jam)?

 

Not that it really matters, of course, but it might help future-proof the nomenclature...

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The Winter Wizard Jam is the wizard jam that happens in winter. The Wizard Jam is the wizard jam that happens in not winter. It's like the Winter Olympics and the Olympics.

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Yeahhhh but we've now had one with a Winter theme so it feels a little messy. NOT A BIG DEAL THOUGH, obv.

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My personal feeling is that the jams should be different in some capacity, and doing episode titles for summer and Something Else for winter made the most sense to me when we were trying to figure out what to do last year. Obviously for the winter one I don't think we'd not allow people to do ep titles, but SOMETHING to differentiate them feels important to me for keeping this event fun and special. If anyone has suggestions on this I'd love to hear them!!

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I think the problem with "Winter" as a theme was that it tied people down a bit too tightly regarding theme/aesthetics, whereas episode titles could be interpreted in any way. Something like, off the top of my head, "Love" as the theme would give people a starting point but not necessarily end up with 40 games based around the colour pink.

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I do think there's something interesting about having a singular theme like you suggest; Global Game Jam is a great example of that, and they've done a great job picking themes with enormous potential for variation. But I also feel like that'd be hard to do while also maintaining a connection to IT, which is seemingly what people want from Wiz Jams.

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Yeah, I was talking about this on Slack just now and I suggested asking the Thumbs to choose the off-season theme as a way to keep it IT.

 

However, I managed to convince 051 (at time of typing) that even if we stick with episode titles from now, it would be better to number the jams while keeping the one and only Winter Jam outside of the numbering system as a 'spin-off'.

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After much good and lively Slack discussion we are considering making the podcast title theme a guaranteed diversifier. This would make that part optional but make diversifiers more important overall.

 

Spring/Summer Jam: Pod Titles + Diversifiers. Fall/Winter Jam: Maximum Diversifiers + Experimental Mystery Stuff.

 

We will keep the core jam stuff in tact for the the 'main' jam and then get a lil weird for this one.

 

Sound good? Thoughts?

 

There are no plans to change anything drastically for this jam but we're a little more free to try stuff before the jam gets started

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I'm looking forward to joining this time around!

 

I have played around a bit with Unity, so I know the basic workflow, but have yet to make an actual game. I have a cool idea (I think) which ties into at least one of the episode titles, and can probably implement many of the proposed diversifiers. I don't actually know if I will be able to finish the game in time, or if it will end up being fun to play, but that is besides the point, right?

 

How is it with the schedule? I'm not at all confident with my Unity skills, so I would like to start a bit earlier and see if I can even implement the backbone of the game. Is that frowned upon?

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Game jams are a great way to learn game development whether you finish a game or not the experience and motivation is well worth it. 

 

As far as starting early goes, I don't suppose anyone will mind too much. But it might be worth if you have a spare weekend beforehand to try working on a different small game. That way you can get the basics down without mucking up the code/project for your actual jam game.

 

Good luck with it, looking forward to playing the finished game. :)

 

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Let's settle the jam #brand. I'm happy with both keeping the Winter name and renaming. This is not a serious dilemma but hey I like to overthink stuff sometimes. Here's my musings at the moment:

 

1. Winter Wizard Jam (2016)
+ Is already established. Sounds catchy. Has kind of a real world analogy with Olympics/Winter Olympics.
- Would have to make clear that 'winter' is not the theme (anymore).

 

2. Dishonored Wizard Jam (2016)
+ Good way of describing a second, alternative version using a well known Idle Thumbs joke.
-  New, long name, does not sound very catchy.

 

3. Wizard Jam 4 (Unifying the naming with the spring jam)
+ Clear, traditional way of naming a thing.
- Doesn't indicate that there is some differences between the jams.

 

4. [Theme] Wizard Jam (e.g. Winter Wizard Jam, Cyber Wizard Jam, Space Wizard Jam)
+ Prefix tells this is a spinoff jam.
- Could be confusing especially after a few years.

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The problem with most of those is that this jam doesn't have a different theme, it's episode titles again. So I would go for 3 (although there is the option of leaving the earlier Winter Wizard Jam out of the numbering and calling this one 3, as I mentioned above).

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