Giant ROM Boot Camp - Let's Get Better at Making Games

Hey everyone! :D

Thanks to the great turnout and overall support the (only, now first) Giant ROM game jam received, there's going to be another one! So far it's looking like it'll take place in early December. Since the first one was a bit last-minute, I wanted to give those who needed it plenty of time to brush up their skills before the jam starts.

Hence this post! Let's share techniques, help fledging game devs learn the basics, and give those who want to team up a way to find each other. When the next jam rolls around, we'll all be a little more prepared, and the resulting games will be even more ridiculous and awesome!

The theme will be announced when the jam begins, so no need to plan your game already!

Resources

• Tools
  • Zoë Quinn's awesome sortingh.at site (find the tool that works for you)
  • PixelProspector's Make Games site (tons of assets)
  • Not sure what to pick? I recommend Construct 2 if you're on PC (free version available, and it's on Steam too). It's fast, easy, and gets results quickly, which is highly motivating. And if you have any questions, I can help!
• Tutorials
  • Make A Game With No Experience, by Tom Francis (maker of Gunpoint)
• Assets
  • Hamster Alliance music, free of charge! (thanks, Hamst3r!)
  • SFXR, a nifty tool for making 8-bit sounds! (thanks for the reference, Roger Wilco!)
  • Kenney's wonderful asset packs, to give you some graphics! (thanks for the reference, gravytrain!)

Teaming Up

If you're looking for others to team up with, here's a Google doc spreadsheet! Add your name and look for others to contact by giantbomb.com private message.

• Giant ROM Team Up!

Help

If you want to give help, or need it, on a particular subject, you can also add that to the list above, or otherwise holler in the comments! I'll be checking periodically myself.

Let's get better at making games!

Great idea, I've got a silly idea for a puzzle game that I've been thinking about, maybe this is the year!

Had lot of fun doing this last time and would like to do this again. Hopefully I can make something better now that I know more.

December is good because that means my job will be winding down for winter vacation. Between the end of the last jam and now I've been learning and working with LibGDX in Android Studio. It's an improvement over Game Maker Studio in most ways since you're using Java instead of Studio's lame GML scripting language, but it's much less beginner friendly and demands that you know how to code properly and manage your assets.

I couldn't be part of the last game jam so I'm glad it's happening again! December is perfect, hopefully my chops will be better by that point.

The last one was awesome! Super looking forward to see what everyone comes up with.

Hey, you're that dude from the thing.

I've watched half of Francis' series and dropped off. Need to get back on that wagon.

@ch3burashka said:

Yup! Hi! :D

If you need any help getting back on the wagon, or if you come across any obstacles on the way, let us know and I'm sure somebody can help you get up to speed!

A deadline sure would help. Is this just a best-practices forum, or will it turn into a jam at some point?

@ch3burashka: Like it says up top, the jam proper will start in December, so for now this is just to give a heads-up and help people get some practice and tips so they're ready for the jam!

Minor update: GAME MAKER PRO IS IN A $6 BUNDLE! Go check it out, because it is RIDICULOUSLY cheap at this price. It's a great time to get it and learn how it works so you can make something awesome when jam time comes! :D

If someone is looking for a programmer for the game jam then I'd love to help out, last time this went on I just didn't have a great idea worth pursuing.

@havochq:It's also good to note that they're including the source code to a few notable games (e. g. Stealth Bastard Deluxe if you pay $12 or more) in that GameMaker Bundle.

Thought it might also be useful to mention the open source project Fungus; It's an easy-to-use story based game framework for Unity.

Holy shit, this is great.

This is super handy, thank you! And, seriously, jump on that price for Game Maker Pro, holy crap! I'm hoping I can get a decent coding/design skillset in time for the next jam with Game maker.

Thanks for letting us know. I think I'm going to try this out this year. It would be cool to finally try to make a game since Ive been thinking about starting for a good long time (I even downloaded the Unity and Unreal engine clients and have been sitting on them for a year). Bubsy 3d: Bubsy visits the James Turrell Retrospective REALLY made me want to try. Hopefully I'll be a part of this. Thanks again for the early heads up. If anything at least I now own Game Studio Pro. Lol.

Looking forward to participating in the next one of these jams. :)

I was hoping to take part in the next game jam you did, but December is the worst possible time. I work in retail, so I'll be at work constantly. I'll have to see if I can scrape together enough free time to put something together, or I might have to wait until the next next Giant ROM.

Great! Really enjoyed the first jam! Not sure I'll be able to join as December is also a bit hectic for me... but we'll see. I definitely want to participate again! :D

@mattyftm said:

Any game works, even one with a very small scope! :D That said, it's totally understandable if you don't have the time; it's why I want to keep organizing more than one a year, in order to maximize the chances of letting everybody participate.

If anyone needs someone who can do 3D modeling, music, sfx, or voice acting (male) for this I am available. I would love to contribute to a game, but I have no coding knowledge at all.

Looking to take part in any way I can. Loved the last games, soo random

I'm not sure if I'll have time to make a game but I'm always down to help anyone with their C# and Unity questions.

Thanks for the link to Construct 2, i had never heard of it before and it is pretty amazing.

I guess i would also add Unreal 4 to the mix, the blueprint system if you don't know how to program is pretty damn good if your willing to put the time into learning it. A lot of free information and tutorials available as well. It's completely free and they take only 5% if you start making over I think 5g's or so.

https://www.youtube.com/user/UnrealDevelopmentKit/playlists

*thought i posted this hours ago, not sure if i forgot to hit post or some glitch happened lol

I got an idea for a dumb thing but I would need to be able to cut some audio/clips from GB videos. Does anybody know of any good free/cheap programs? I have zero experience with editing so something easy to learn would be great.

@daddycabinet said:

I usually use Audacity to record audio from clips. It's free, and if you set the microphone to "Stereo Mix", it essentially records whatever's playing right now. For video, I think Windows Movie Maker can make some easy cuts. Best of luck! :D

Thanks for putting all of this together!

Edit: Has anyone taken the voice samples the guys did on the podcast and placed them anywhere for download? If not I'd be willing to do it if I knew the podcast episodes

Hello! I'm looking to assist, QA, what have you! I'm trying to get into the game industry and anything I can do to put on my resume would be awesome. Here or even better @coltonrdaniels on Twitter. I can link to my resume and such if needed.

For game music, I've used tracks by Eric Matyas from http://soundimage.org/ in previous game jams. A lot of the tracks have looping and non-looping versions, it's all free to download and sorted by genre/mood. Just make sure to credit it properly in the game itself (there's more info on the site).