Creating Games as a Hobby – Lessons Learned from five years of Game Jamming

I have been fascinated with video games for as long as I remember. I have always thought  there is a lot of creativity in them – interesting worlds and characters, interactions and challenges and memorable art and music. However, it took me quite a long time to come to the realization that I could make games as well. 

When I first started thinking about game making, I had quite a limited view on the topic – I thought that in order to develop games, one would need a studio with hundreds of developers and a great sum of funding. While I knew that some independent games existed, they still felt quite niche 10 years ago. 

However, my mindset switched a bit when Undertale (2015) came out. While Undertale is not the first successful independent game that reached a wide audience, it was the game which truly familiarized me with the concept of indie games and developing them. After playing Undertale, I was very inspired to try making games myself, or with a small group. 

At this point, I still had no idea on how to actually make games. I did want to make games, and I spent time sketching and writing up ideas for possible games. But I was intimidated to actually download a game engine and start making games. Eventually, I was able to download GameMaker, and I was able to create a small 2D shooter game. 

I eventually got into university for a degree in game design – a career path I felt very excited to pursue. At this time I also became more familiar with the concept of game jams – game making events that usually last for a few days or a week (though shorter and longer game jams are also a thing). Not long after starting university, I had the opportunity to participate in my first game jam – Ludum Dare 45 in October 2019. Ludum Dare is (usually) bi-yearly game creation event where participants have to make a game that fits a certain theme in three days. I was excited to finally join a game jam, and I remember sharing this excitement with the rest of the team. During the first game jam, my role was artist, though I also started dabbling a bit on the role of animator. 

At the beginning of the jam, we were all coming up with all kinds of ideas left and right. However, despite the fact that our team was full of capable and skilled people with creative ideas, most of us were inexperienced with game development at the time. Unfortunately, our inexperience and unbalanced team composition (with nearly a dozen artistic people, but only one with proper programming knowledge) lead to a messy, unfinished game and ideas that were either abandoned or barely implemented. We ended up naming the game Hoot ‘em Owl, which was like a humorous way to say shoot them all (our protagonist was an owl). While it is hard to describe the genre for an unfinished and broken game jam game, it was inspired by classic top-down adventure games. 

It took me some time to have the courage to participate in another game jam, but eventually I wanted to participate in one again. Exactly two years later, I decided to join another Ludum Dare – Ludum Dare 49. This time, I was able to find myself another team (with one of the same teammates as for Ludum Dare 45) which was also a much more balanced team in terms of our skills, as we had people with technical knowledge, as well as artistic people who can make art, animations and music. This time, I also joined as an artist though I also was more confident in making a bunch of animations.  

Once again, I was filled with similar creative excitement I felt when I first participated in a game jam. From the get-go it seemed like this team had better communication and it was much easier to come up with a shared vision for a game (instead of a million different ideas that we tried to combine into a one singular idea). Of course, this was still only my second game jam, and first with this particular team, so we still made our fair share of mistakes.

Our biggest issue was probably time management – our initial scope for the game had to be cut down. We also wanted to make a game which had some sort of deep lore and story, but most of the story was written during the last day of the event. However, despite our shortcomings we were able to at least make a game which had a good atmosphere, and a clear structure. We never named the game formally, so it was just called Unfinished in the Ludum Dare website. It is a small side-scroller adventure-horror game where a scottish man named Gavin explores a haunted castle (there certainly isn’t any plot twist about this in the game). 

After Ludum Dare 49, I have participated in multiple other game jams (which most have been Ludum Dares, with the same team as well). Additionally, my role has shifted during my game jams. I started focusing more on making animations instead of art, as we already had two stellar artists on our team and I had become more interested in learning about animation. Furthermore, I had familiarized myself with game engines in order to take a more active role as a designer, and to help with the construction of the actual game project. 

Our most recent Ludum Dare was Ludum Dare 56 – which took place in October 2024, which also marks 5 years since my first game jam. This time, my role was as an animator and a designer. 

I think that the development process tends to become smoother with each game jam I participate in with this same team. I think we have good communication, and we have a much better understanding of how much can realistically be achieved in three days. Additionally, we all have improved our respective skill sets along the years, which allows us to make more polished and ambitious games. I feel quite proud of all our game jam games, though our most recent game Wispering Woods is the one I’m proudest so far. It is also a classic top-down adventure game, though we really nailed the aesthetic and visual look this time.

Of course, I have done game development outside of game jams as well, but I still consider that game jams have considerably helped to improve me as a game developer. They have also been a great outlet for creativity, and a way to bond with my friends. I barely knew what a game engine was during my first game jam, but now a lot of my work during a game jam involves tweaking and editing things in the game engine.

I believe that for people who are interested in working in or with games, game jams can be a beneficial and satisfying activity. During game jams you can learn new skills, meet new people and express your creativity. If you want to work in the game industry, you may be able to get something to put on your portfolio. But for me, I think what has been the most satisfying is seeing my own improvement. When I look at the screenshot from my first game jam and the screenshot from the latest one, I feel quite happy about my journey with game development and hope that I can see even more improvement in the future.

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