EDIT: thanks to everyone who participated! Check out the finished game here!
Hey folks!
This month we’re going back in time to our very first game jam. That’s right! We’re making Five second games!
You might be asking: “What!? A game that only lasts for FIVE SECONDS? How can that possibly be fun?”
Well, don’t panic, friend! Each game will indeed only be five seconds long, but we’re going to be combining them together at the end of the jam into one SUPER GAME!!! This is going to be one giant collaboration between everyone who enters. For an example of what the finished game might look like, here’s what we created last time we did this:
(I’ll be making this one a little bit fancier though )
Template Project
To make sure all of the games are consistent, we’ve made a template project for you to start with. All entries into this jam MUST use this template project!
To open this template, follow the link and press “Edit Code”. Make sure you change the name to something that describes your game!
Inside this template, you’ll see a “Game Jam” category in the toolbox with some blocks that you can use in your code and some sample code to show how they work. You can delete all of the blocks in the template project. They’re just there as an example.
Code Restrictions
We have a few extra code restrictions for this jam to make it easier to stitch the games together at the end:
All games must use the template project above
All games must use the “start mini game with verb” block in their code
All games must use the “set mini game win state” block in their code
The following blocks are not allowed:
game over
reset game
Otherwise, you can use any extensions/blocks you like!
Rules
Games should be built in MakeCode Arcade
Games should clearly adhere to the theme without the need for any extra explanation
Keep the games PG: no NSFW, offensive, or excessively violent content.
You must be at least 9 years old to participate.
All games must be submitted by someone who is at least 13 years old. Younger students are welcome to participate, but it must be in partnership with an adult and with parent permission.
You have two weeks to enter! The jam will close at 11:59 PM PDT on Monday, May 15th 2023
Since there are a few extra rules this time around, I’ll be making a sample game for this jam on the Wednesday livestream this week. I will add the YouTube video to this thread afterwards, so don’t worry if you can’t make it!
Here’s my 5-second minigame: Connect All! (I tried to make it a WarioWare-style title)
This game is inspired by a game that I played on my smartwatch at one point, called “Connection” (also a mobile game). But that game (at least on my watch) had very few levels then repeated them (this type of thing is bad for any game’s longevity).
This game that I made is a 5-second game, which I found fits the format really well! In the game you must move the dot to connect all the dots (make them red), but you can’t overlap with already-red dots. I originally had 1 level but figured I would add a bunch (level design is fun) and a random one is picked (with a unique feature of the player being able to begin in different places within a single level).
though I do want to make sure that people don’t submit extra games “just because”. if anybody submits a second game, please make sure it’s different than your first one and that you put some extra effort in to making it cool!
Okay, definitely! Just to clarify, @richard: if I make another game, (a totally different, new one) it will also be put into the collective game at the end, right?
)
