Game jam – kbrecordzz

I was at a game jam, and I realized it's the perfect environment, structure and timeframe for finishing creative projects. After such a long time of trying to find the best possible way to plan and structure projects, the thought had never ocurred to me (until now) that you can also just remove the whole project thing, and just do!

At a game jam you're put into a fresh environment made just for being creative, together with a few other likeminded people, to start and finish a project in a few (usually) days. When you have so little time, you don't really have time for any prestige, judgement or structure. You focus on the creative, and the structure will have to follow. You just do whatever you have to be finished. The project's lifespan will look like any bigger project: You start with ambitions and lots of ideas, then you get productive for a while, and in the end you realize you don't have any time left and have to trash 90% of the ideas to get anything done at all. In the end, you have made something. It's far from perfect, but also much more than nothing. It's probably better than something half-done. And you had fun while doing it! Because you mostly focused on the fun parts, because you didn't have time for anything else. Game jams show what's most important in creative projects in a brutally honest way: Those who spend most of their time planning and arguing simply don't have a game at the end of the weekend.

Trying to finish something in such a short time can be stressful, but since it's also limited to a specific place and social environment, the pressure will stay at the game jam and not follow you into your "real" life. And, you'll soon realize that you won't be able to create something truly world-changing in this short time anyway, so there's not really that much at stake...

The change of environment is also an important part, which creates lots of new ideas and gets you out of your usual habits. You get the same feeling as travelling, where your whole day-to-day life forcefully gets exchanged to something new that you can't fully control (when you come home from experiencing something new in this wholehearted way, you've become a new person in tiny ways). And you don't have any excuses to not get on with your project, because that's the one and only reason you're here. And other people can't disturb you, because you're at an event.

So, onwards I will try to use the "game jam" concept, but for other projects, and also by myself, to finish various projects or parts of them (for example kbz.se, my snowboard game and the for now nameless sequel to This Is (NOT!) A Car Club), in a way where I also have a fun time doing it. Fun pressure during a short time to get some surprising results, instead of a slow, steady and silent pressure that slowly bores you and has a constant deadline hanging over your head. And hopefully it will be more productive than only doing things when you're "inspired" (how often does that really happen?).

(There's also the social aspect of a game jam, which gives you new perspectives, and maybe even new friends! But I think just the time pressure, environment change and focus on the fun goes a long way for solo projects too.)

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