We had a fantastic time at RDC US this year, and we can’t wait for RDC EU!
This year’s RDC US featured our annual RDC party, three different tracks, and an overnight game jam. At the end of the nearly eight-hour game jam, judges walked around the ballroom to see demos of the games made, play a few of them, and cast their votes. This year, nearly 40 teams competed to get their game ranked in the top 3 spots: with 15 finalist teams, it was certainly a hard decision!
There were three teams that took home awards this year: Darth-Sparkle-Rose-Unicorn took home third place for their game, Altered Scapes, Reversed Reality won second place with their game, Space Jam, and Bomb Squad won a trophy for their work on BLAST HOOK! We didn’t let the winning teams get away without asking them a few questions about their Game Jam experience. Check out what they said below:
How did you choose your Game Jam 2018 team?
Each team had their own stories about how they chose their teams; many teams had worked together on past Game Jams, like a few of the members of Darth-Sparkle-Rose-Unicorn and Bomb Squad. Reversed Reality, however, had a unique story on how they met.
B_rcode and Roball1 had participated together in last year’s Game Jam at RDC2017 and already planned to team up again in RDC 2018. Once the two of them agreed to form a team, they began reaching out to their other team members, Raguza, EchoZenkai, and SnakeWorl. Here’s what Roball1 told us:
"I was actually the person who sought after most members of the team. It began last year when B_rcode and myself were participating in the Game Jam together. We had failed to complete our game and we both felt defeated. Because we failed to complete our game, our team was not selected to be showcased on the Twitch stream. After that, I told B_rcode that at RDC 2018 we would be presenting our game and we would win our first Game Jam together.
Fast forward one year to when B_rcode and I met up prior to his Roblox Summer Accelerator work began: we spoke about the Game Jam and how we wanted to win this year while grabbing dinner. B_rcode and I had known EchoZenkai for quite some time, and with him being another summer accelerator, it was not difficult to message him on Discord and ask him if he wanted to team up.
SnakeWorl and I had spoken in the Developer Forum via direct messages after a friend mentioned that SnakeWorl and I had a similar sense of humor. I had messaged SnakeWorl asking if he wanted to meet up and team up on the Game Jam- much to my surprise, he agreed that we should team up, with one condition: that his good friend Raguza join him. Raguza and SnakeWorl proved to be a great combination that made our game’s development go much faster than I ever anticipated.
RDC had finally arrived, and on the first day, I met SnakeWorl, Raguza, and EchoZenkai in real life for the first time. That first day, after grabbing dinner with a few other RDC attendees, I also met TheBloxDev and asked him to join our team. In our make-shift team, I knew what I wanted. I wanted a builder, at least two scripters, a UI designer, and an animator. SnakeWorl and Raguza were those scripters, B_rcode was that UI designer who designed and animated monsters, and EchoZenkai made both UI and scripted. I was in charge of animations for players and their weapons, and the overall design of the map. I knew this team was exactly what I wanted since attending RDC 2016. We all knew each other and what we were capable of and knew exactly what we were doing."
What opportunities did Game Jam give your team that you might not have otherwise had a chance to do?
Game Jam is a unique opportunity for developers who have sometimes only exclusively known each other from the Developer Forum to team up and work together. Developers come from around the world to attend RDC, and Game Jam is a venue for them to meet each other and collaborate in real life. We asked the Game Jam winning teams what they thought was the best opportunity that Game Jam presented- here’s what they said:
Darth-Sparkle-Rose-Unicorn developers BonnabelleRose, DarthChadius, Mimi_Dev, and Sparklings each talked about how Game Jam provided them an opportunity to work with developers who had different experiences than them, work together in person and push themselves to develop a game in less than a day. Mimi_Dev said this: “Game Jam was a unique experience because it gave us the opportunities to work together in person and speak to one another directly. Game Jam helped us not just create a one-time Game Jam team, but to create our long-term game development team.”
Roball1, B_rcode, EchoZenkai, Raguza, TheBloxDev and SnakeWorl, the developer team Reversed Reality, discussed similar benefits as Darth-Sparkle-Rose-Unicorn, such as working together in person, but they also saw value in getting exposure to the Roblox Developer community, having a chance to promote their professional persona and the value of working together as a team.
Bomb Squad, the team composed of Crykee, Defaultio, nsgriff, and Quenty, refer to the RDC 2018 Game Jam as being a great opportunity for experimentation. “We had the opportunity to spend time experimenting on a very unique project that we otherwise would not have done,”
What was the toughest part of the overnight Game Jam? What challenges did your team overcome to ship your game?
Shipping a game is never easy, but when you’re given a theme- in this case, altered physics- and asked to design, develop and ship a game in less than 24 hours, the challenge can be daunting. Besides the obvious challenges, many of the developers who made up the winning teams referenced the same challenge: SLEEP! The RDC 2018 Game Jam is an overnight, nearly 23-hour developing session where teams go heads-down on their Game Jam games. Many teams would trade off to allow members to take naps throughout the night, but others powered all the way through. Who needs sleep anyways?
Bomb Squad mentioned one other challenge: settling on nailing down their game idea and getting a clear direction for their project. Once this was sorted, the team said everything else went smoothly.
What advice do you have for developers interested in taking part in Game Jams in the future?
From Darth-Sparkle-Rose-Unicorn:
“Game Jams are about having fun, learning new things and pushing the limits to make yourself a better developer. It’s always worth it; just get out there and do it!” - BonnabelleRose
“Take some time in the beginning to brainstorm some ideas. Make sure that each team member gets to tell their ideas without interruption. This allows all ideas to be heard before breaking into discussions about all possible options. Time is short; make sure you pick something small enough to be able to complete and polish it up a bit before having to show your work to the judges. Make sure you do something that is in your wheelhouse. Selecting something completely foreign to you may not be the best direction with so little time.” - DarthChadius
From Reversed Reality:
“Always have your team created prior to the Game Jam. The Game Jam tests your communication skills, development skills, and stability. If you cannot communicate with your teammates well, you need to let them know, because they will support you with any problems or issues you have during the process. And don’t forget to have fun and talk to them, laugh a lot, it keeps you awake!” - Roball1
“As soon as the theme is announced, write down ALL your ideas into a document. After that, have each member pitch their idea for what they want to do, then decide together on what exactly you all want to do. This will help everyone know what all the project requirements are from the beginning” -B_rcode
From Bomb Squad:
“Game jams can be super fun if you eliminate the stress of winning. The reason our project came together so well is that we didn’t get consumed with trying to make the best game; our main mission was always to have a lot of fun with each other, and that helped us create an awesome game.”
We can’t wait to see what’s in store for RDC EU Game Jam! Check out the winning games below and prepare for RDC EU Game Jam!
First Place: Bomb Squad with BLAST HOOK: BLAST HOOK - Roblox
@anon89973268 @Crykee @Quenty @nsgriff @Defaultio
Second Place: Reversed Reality with Space Jam: Space Jam - Roblox
@B_rcode @Roball1 @SnakeWorl @Raguza @TheBloxDev @EchoZenkai
Third Place: Darth-Sparkle-Rose-Unicorn with Altered Scapes: Altered Scapes - Roblox
@Mimi_Dev @Sparklings @BonnabelleRose @DarthChadius
