00. Epic MegaJam announcement and musings

Not sure if I’m out of my creative hiatus, but checking out winners of the previous jam (2023) made me wonder.

In 2024 there wasn’t a jam, apparently.

1. 2023 winners showcase wasn’t as impressive as some other jams I’ve participated in and observed in person. I just skimmed through, but it looked like the theme either didn’t resonate with many people or the time of the jam was unfavorable or the way the winners were picked was more about mechanics. I mean, except one game from the winners, nothing piqued my interest from the winners announcement video, but I am sure in the submissions there were more games that would suit my taste.

2. So, this jam, despite being one of the major jams out there, isn’t as intimidating as I expected, or perhaps my level raised enough for me to feel like in a couple of years I’ll have a chance to fight for the prizes.

3. Currently all the jams I participate in I do for the check-in, not aiming at the prize etc. I am well aware of my level.

4. As with some of the previous jams I participated in, there’s a lot freedom regarding preparation way before the jam starts. I can prepare a placeholder theme and even characters, since as lot of my game ideas are kind of the same thing (I want specific genre and specific mechanics in my stories/games). UE 5.7 is coming out pretty soon as well, or perhaps I didn’t notice how much time has passed.

Some of my characters can be updated with new Metahuman update, didn’t occur to me with specific character that was already pretty good, I wonder how much I can push it.

Despite everything, My most all-around solid prototype is Jack’s game. And because I broke my more complex ones again lmao

I know I’m good at storytelling, based on my Twine games reception, and I have some fun character designs (only in 2d and just 3d faces now). With each jam I actually push my “budding portfolio” further, and get ideas for some “non-standard” mechanics and aspects in the games.

I am not sure where I’m going creatively, and I made a long pause in my processes for personal reasons, but maybe I will participate in this jam hmm