InnoGames’ first developer Game Jam was a popular success. The event, which took place at the InnoGames headquarters in Harburg, ran for a staggering 48 hours this past weekend. Developers were tasked with creating an entire original game within the time allotted, and in the end, a winner was chosen for the best game. Three attendees of the Jam recorded their experiences to share with you here.

The experiences of Sebastian, Software Developer

I attended the first InnoGames Game Jam. It was an amazing, funny and exhausting experience. It was also the first Game Jam that I have ever attended. Here are some things I’ve learned from it (for the next time) and some things I’ve recently realized:

1. Get enough sleep! The longer I was awake the fewer tasks I accomplished.

2. I was impressed that the others and I were able to solve things, although we were completely spent. (Ok, things came up pretty slow after a while ).

3. Know your tools! It was my first Game Jam and I went into it with a “thing will go well” attitude. I wasn’t prepared very well content-wise. I chose JavaScript as my programming language, a language that impresses me but I haven’t mastered it yet. Maybe I should have chosen another language.

4. Have a good partner! For me, I didn’t want a project to take on alone. I had an excellent partner in Thorben. We have known each other for about ten years now and we pretty much finished our game right in time. (Of course the game could have been better, but we are satisfied with the result.)

5. Don’t give a shit about code quality! Really! Get things done! In the daily business I care about code quality, structure, reusability and so on – the list can be endless. I cared about quality in the Game Jam too…at least in the beginning. But quickly I (happily) became aware that I was trying to make things nice and beautiful instead of getting things done. The progress was slow. From then on I didn’t care about code quality much anymore.

6. Use some version control system! Use Git. Use Subversion. Use whatever suites you (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_revision_control_software). You might think that you don’t need such a tool for a small project. I did. And I was very happy I did…several times. Last time, right before the end, Thorben and I created a branch called “combos” to implement a new feature – which, of course we didn’t complete within the remaining 45 minutes then.

7. People are interested in what you do and they gladly share their things, too. That was really nice to notice. In the daily business that’s not always the case – because of very different reasons, I guess.

That’s pretty much it. Thanks a lot again to all attendees for coming and making it such a cool event. And thanks to InnoGames for providing space, food and beverages.

The experiences of Michael, Software Developer

Oh dear, what have I done? how is it possible that I thought 48h of programming was a good idea for a weekend? Well, you don’t have to program all the time… it is possible to program your game in 8 hours and sleep for the rest. Maybe you can imagine that it was quite the opposite So here is my story, how I started, how I felt wasted like never before, how I saw people drinking 4 liters of energy drinks, how the countdown crumbled to 00:00:00, how it ended and how awesome this all was.

At the beginning there was a theme and then came the thought and at 4 p.c (past countdown) I created the very first code. I was fresh, and had so many great ideas in my head. Clearly, I was going to program the best game ever! And truth be told, the only reason why that didn’t worked out was the limited time (- ;

Before sunrise I finished my first milestone. Seeing how my game came to life felt great; how the work started to pay off and the idea was growing slowly. But I was very tired, so I went to bed.  I thought I would sleep until next day, but I was wrong. I don’t know why, but I woke up only having slept 4 hours. Looking back, I am pretty sure the game jam god slapped me in the face with his big hands, telling me to go finish the game. So I did, never sleeping again until the very end of the game jam.

There was a moment at night, when I looked up from the desktop, seeing sleepy faces of my game jam brothers and sisters (you get to know people very well when sharing a room for so many hours ;- ) , empty pizza (thanks innogames for sponsoring these!) boxes and energy drinks all around us and I asked myself: is this how a start-up feels?
Working together with people you like on something you love, working hard into very late in the night, with children and women waiting for you at home. I don’t know cause I never worked for one, but what I do know is how good it felt and I am very happy to work at a place where moments like this are stored in my memory, so I can tell my children and grandchildren about them…ok maybe not my grandchildren

The morning before the end I felt very tired. I wrote over 1000 lines of code, but they felt like 1000.000 because I had rewritten them like 1000 times, I had a bug which I could not figure out, so I cut the feature (it felt like I was abandoning a child, but there is no time for such soft feelings at a game jam!) and moved on. I kept going and going, running against the countdown and my sleepiness, working on my game – and so did the others. Everyone was tired, but no one gave up! We were like a band of brothers at war, helping each other, giving cheers and feedback (well that’s not so common at war, I think).

It came fast and no one could belief it was really there… the end! Every one of us was happy and relieved. We came together one last time to present our games to each other. There was an adventure, a tower defense, a beat em’ up and others. Everyone was very unique, like the people who created them. We laughed a lot and were very happy to share this experience. As for me, it was a very unique adventure that I am glad I have made.  I got to know my colleagues much better. I was inspired by the spirit everyone showed… and let’s not forget, I made a game in 48h, something you should try with your very own hands

The experiences of Team Marketing

“Can you even program?” or “What are you doing here?” – This, or something similar was the reaction when three brave employees from the marketing department, Alex, Rebecca and Eileen, signed up for the Game Jam. At the time, nobody from the team could seriously program. Alexander Schaefer took it upon himself to learn the easiest programming language he could find, Blitz Basic, before the ultimate battle.

Not an easy challenge, but in any case, it was the perfect opportunity to learn something new… and of course to have a lot of fun: without the noise-sensitive coworkers in the offices next door.  Music could be turned on full volume and sang along loudly, with cursing and laughing. Thanks to the other great (and helpful!) participants, the idea of the marketing team producing a little adventure, gradually took shape. Now the text and graphics should be added somehow in the code!

But time was against us all: After the first 30 hours (which was preceded by a normal working day) even the most stubborn members of our team slept a few hours. Annoying, but needed! The hours melted away between our fingers as we frantically dug into the keys, until suddenly the countdown expired. But we wanted to add chapters 2 and 3?! No way, our organizer Michael Indyk was tough, but fair: no extra 10-20 hours for us!

And the moral of the story? Next time we will be there and make everything even more beautiful, even better and faster! And for those who cannot program: ask your fellow programmers – certainly one could use another creative head in his or her team, and doesn’t want to fly solo! We’ll see you at the next InnoGames Game Jam!