3-Day Jam

The jam puts into practice everything discussed so far!

Day 1 — Decide what to make and plan how to make it.

Day 2 — Build the roughest possible working version. Start simple.

Day 3 — Add game feel and polish. Make the core action feel satisfying.

Pick the track that matches what you want to practice:

Prototype Jam — Design

Design and prototype your own interesting mechanic.

Remake Jam — Tech

Remake an existing game in Unity.

Start by picking a verb from this list:

Then think: how could this verb be turned into a game mechanic? Your concept document must answer:

1. Core mechanic — What is it? What is the main action? Does it create interesting scenarios? Can you define it practically? Is it expandable? What is the minimum unit of Play, here? As in - can you strip everything away but one small action? If so, what is it? Is it an action you can re-use many times to generate multiple scenarios? If you had to describe in three words what makes this action interesting in your game, what would they be?
2. Multiplicative mechanics — Which mechanics would deepen the core action? These interact with your main mechanic in ways that make the player think about it differently. They don't need to be in the prototype, but they need to be in the document.
3. Feeling — What feeling does this action create? How can game feel, polish, animation, and graphics strengthen it?
4. First level sketch — One sketch of a very, very simple example level.
5. Theme — Is there a theme? Does it reinforce the mechanic? How?

You don't need the document ready by 14:30 — finish it by end of day or start of the next. But you must have picked a mechanic by end of Day 1.

Prepare a short document (or just notes) outlining:

1. What game have you decided to remake?
2. What is the simplest first thing you can build? Make a layered plan for how to build this step by step. It's ok if you don't know exactly how yet! Just think about how to go up in complexity. Or, if you prefer, whether to tackle the most complex thing first.
3. What are the main technical challenges? Which Unity components help? What scripts do you need to write yourself?
4. How is the game flow handled? Is there a main class/script that's a manager and coordinates everything else?
5. What don't you know how to do yet, and how will you research it?
6. Look at the game. Does anything about building this scare you? If so, how can you simplify it? Is there a simpler way to build this? Something you can work around without losing the core of what the game's about?

If you don't have a working version from Day 2, getting it playable is still your first priority. Polish whatever time allows after that.