WIZARD JAM X - Welcome Thread

[Dinosaursssssss]

WIZARD JAM X - THE END OF WIZARD JAM

https://itch.io/jam/wizard-jam-10

 

Hello and welcome to WIZARD JAM 10 — the finale of the long-running Idle Thumbs community-run game jam! 

Greetings Wizard Jam community! With the announcement of Wizard Jam 10, we want announce that Wizard Jam 10 will also be the final Wizard Jam. At the ripe old age of 10, we felt it will be better to give the event a grand send off instead of watching it slowly peter out. We trust the community will get on board with this idea, not as something to mourn, but something to celebrate. We have announced the dates far ahead of time so that even if you can't participate during the specified dates, you can do something beforehand.

 

We've loved running Wizard Jam for the community, and hope you'll join in making this the grandest of finales. 

 

Thank you all!

 

- Travis, Elvaq, Spenny, ZeroFiftyOne and Dinosaursssssss

 

 

Wizard Jam is not a contest; the main emphasis is to celebrate the Thumbs community through sharing and collaboration over the course of a fortnight. We write devlogs and post GIFs. We offer support and volunteer music, sounds and other assets. We play each other's games and stream them. It's a lot of fun!

The other thing we try to emphasize is encouraging people to try making something new and unfamiliar; or to try game development for the first time entirely (quite a few of the entries we've had in the past are from complete first-timers to gamedev!). We run the jam over the course of two weeks to give people the room to try something weird and see how it turns out.

 

We're gonna be posting dev logs, forming teams, and chit chatting over here in the thread on the Idle Forums and the Idle Thumbs Reads Slack channel; come hang out! There're also lots of experienced game developers kicking around who'd be happy to offer advice and help you get what you need to make your game. Not in the Slack? You can join us by CLICKING HERE and join the #WizardJam room! We're here hanging out in between Wizard Jams too, come say hi!

 

We have a twitter account, @wizard_jam, to help share everyone's progress or just let the fans follow along! Tag @wizard_jam or use the #wizardjam hashtag when you post progress updates so we can retweet your stuff!

 

Wizard Jam - Friday, January 10th to Sunday, January 26th

Showcase Weekend - Saturday, February 1st to Sunday, February 2nd

 

Choose an episode title from any show on the Idle Thumbs podcast network and use it as a theme prompt for your game. Use this site to browse through show titles: http://randomthumbs.danjohnmoran.com/

 (Thanks to Broxxar, Panzorfork & matt.ishii for providing the site). 

 

1. This jam is not a competition, and there is no minimum level of game development experience needed to join. People from all backgrounds are  welcome to participate. If you're new to gamedev, let us know! Join us on the forums and on Slack; where you'll find help, advice and encouragement from the community. Wizard Jam began out of a desire to help people get starting making games, so don't be shy! 
2. Aside from the next 2 administrative points, there are no rules. You don't HAVE to use an endorsement. You don't HAVE to make your entire game in the 2 weeks allotted. Most people will, but if you come in a little late, or get started a little early, or submit something unrelated to the podcast that's A-OK!
3. Entries containing any form of harassment or hate-speech are not permitted. Anything crossing into this territory will be removed.
4. If an entry is clearly from someone trying to use the jam page on Itch to promote an unrelated game, or any other sort of spam, we'll contact the submitter and the entry may be removed.
5. Stay spicy!

[zerofiftyone]

[brendonsmall]

This is a great idea. I'd like to express my sincere thanks to Travis, Elvaq, Spenny, ZeroFiftyOne and Dinosaursssssss for keeping this beautiful monster alive so long. Wizard Jam helped me get into the industry, and brought me closer to the amazing thumbs community. 

 

Hoping to carve out some time to make something fun and nice to send off our beloved wizard jam <3

[z_bill]

The finale? Wow! That seems fitting...and I've got something that absolutely fits that theme that I've been brewing! 

 

Thanks to Wizard Jam, I started making games, and my life is much improved!

 

Let's do this! Get all your Dot Gobbler lore out there while you still can!

[Trilderberg]

I've always wanted to participate in a Wizard Jam. I guess this my last chance

[zerofiftyone]

1 hour ago, z_bill said:

Thanks to Wizard Jam, I started making games, and my life is much improved!

 

1 hour ago, brendonsmall said:

This is a great idea. I'd like to express my sincere thanks to Travis, Elvaq, Spenny, ZeroFiftyOne and Dinosaursssssss for keeping this beautiful monster alive so long. Wizard Jam helped me get into the industry, and brought me closer to the amazing thumbs community. 

 

Honestly, being reminded that there's a sizeable bunch of people who have started making games as a result of wizard jam is the most satisfying thing to me. Thanks for making the last five years of doing these so memorable, folks. ❤

[hedgefield]

What a grand moment to end the Wizard era on, at the end of the decade. Thanks to everyone that has made these jams a delight to participate in.

 

I'm excited for this final celebration of Thumbs lore - I ship a big assignment a few days before it starts, after that I'm clearing my schedule.

[Dappleganger]

Has anyone previously used or is planning to use Dreams to make a game for the jam?

[zerofiftyone]

2 hours ago, Dappleganger said:

Has anyone previously used or is planning to use Dreams to make a game for the jam?

 

Hmm I think you might be the first to mention it!

[phill]

On 12/11/2019 at 7:53 AM, Dappleganger said:

Has anyone previously used or is planning to use Dreams to make a game for the jam?

 

On 12/11/2019 at 10:22 AM, zerofiftyone said:

 

Hmm I think you might be the first to mention it!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5QPirQITZI

[Teljoor]

I'd also like to thank the organizers. The first game I ever finished and published was a Wizard Jam project. I think the emphasis on non-competitiveness and the generous time period helped make it easy to jump in. It always felt like a very 'friendly' event.

I'm looking forward to participating in January.

[Paul Smith]

@Problem Machine and I had a brief exchange on Nick's recent Jackbox stream whether it would be feasible to do a Jackbox-like for Wizard Jam. @Lokno releasing the code for the internalisation meter made me think it could be adapted for that purpose, then Twitch would handle all the network side of things.

A lot of Jackbox games are really just text input and display, so not that far from the fundamentals of the internalisation meter. Any Jackbox WJ game would be best played on a stream anyway.

I'm not much of a coder (esp not with Python) so just putting this idea out there in case someone else is interested. 

 

Internalisation code: https://github.com/Lokno/internalization

[protocraig]

Hey, I'm in between online Unity courses and would love to participate in the jam. Could anyone drop me a fresh Slack invite link? Looks like the one in OP is expired. <3

[brendonsmall]

Hey all,

 

Keeping up with the tradition of the last couple WizJams, I've posted my splash screen unity files online for you to use in your game if you want.

 

 

Here are the files: https://github.com/whilefun/FreeUnityScripts/tree/master/WizardJamXSplashScreen

 

Enjoy!

[Ben X]

In case anyone missed it, Nick streamed some of the games last week:

 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/545364126

 

He'll be streaming more (perhaps all the rest?) in about 5 hours from now!

[Ben X]

Part 2: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/548966396

 

Nick is planning to do another stream same time next week where he catches up on some unplayed Jam games of the past and revisits old favourites. So, any requests, let him know!