Game Jams: The most fun you can have while programming

Programming is a lot of fun. It’s an awesome feeling when your code compiles without errors, the app passes all the tests, and runs without any (noticeable) bugs. It’s an awesome feeling even if you are working on a boring enterprise app. You made the primitive machine under your keyboard do something. If that isn’t amazing I don’t know what is.

Now take the satisfaction you get when you produce working code and multiply it by 100. This is how awesome it feels when you are making a game.

Making a game takes a lot of time. The process is pretty much endless because there is always another level that you could add, or make a cool game mechanic even cooler. Game jams are awesome, because they limit the amount of time you can invest.

Game jam is a gathering of developers, artists, and other creatives over a short time during which a collective effort is made to make one or more games.

The key point in this definition from wikipedia is a short time. You don’t have to invest a ton of time and money to do a game jam. You can even keep your day job! All you need is to grab your laptop, go to a friends place, and do some coding. After a day or two you should have a game. It’s not going to be the best game ever, but it’s going to have a player, a goal and maybe even some levels. Even though it’s probably going to be buggy and unfinished you will be able to play it. And it will make you proud.