Unfortunatly i don't have the time to participate in a 'Winter jam', these next few months are my busiest. I struggled with the 'Fall jam' myself, but did my best with the time :)

There are a number of us that want to hold game jams now, how many is too many is not easy to answer. game jams are running all the time, everyday, so i just think its more down to who has the time and actually want to particpate, or it they find a theme that sparks there interest.

If it helps i am more than willing to move the date of the summer jam so we can get more jams in, in a more structured, levelled way? so that they don't fall on top of each other? theres also the art challenges to think about, which i thought would tie into jams, or the jams tie into the art challenges, not sure whats happening with those?

I'm not sure if @Spring is hosting another 'Spring jam'? it would be good to get a timeline going with these so we all know what we are doing and at what time and when.

Thats said, its a totally optional thing for people to run game jams how they want to, so if you want to run a 'Winter jam' then do so, i mean i will try and do my best to take part, but i cant promise. :)

The years fall by like the rain :) The summer jam seems the most popular. Anything leading up to Christmas is a no go for most. Zoms art challenge followed by a game jam idea is brilliant and should become a yearly thing imo but when to host? 2 jams per year may be optimal, 3 at most and the trick is to catch people when they are motivated, like summertime :) I guess summer and winter (after the Christmas rush) would be good?

In the past, I've advocated running seasonal jams, so 4 a year.  At the time, my thinking was that we might as well try it and see if there's enough interest to support that many Jams.  But after the last year, when I think we did well run 1 jam every season, I think it's clear there's not quite enough interest to sustain that many OGA Game Jams in a year.  Maybe 2 would be a better number?

I think ZomBCool makes a good point about timing playing a role.  People just seem to have more time and enthusiasm for the Summer Jam. 

It's tempting to say do Summer and Winter as that spaces things best, but I almost wonder if Spring and Summer would be best.

I also wonder if overall the 'Game Jam' space is starting to get over crowded, making it harder for the OGA Jam to stand out, but I'm not sure what can be done about that.

I think 4 jams a year is reasonable, i sort of agree with you a little that there would seem no interest in some jams to sustain them, but perhaps they weren't known about by the many due to post being lost over a couple of days(which happens a lot here), or the other reasons that @ZomBCool mentions, like timing or something else. I don't think the jams reached enough people here in the community so i wouldn't say that its 'clear' theres not enough interest, more of not enough people knew about them, and i don't think we should just give up on them just yet. :) That said if noone wants to hold a re-occuring 'Spring/Autumn/winter' jam, thats OK, at least we(the community) know about it and we can focus on the the 2 jams.

"People just seem to have more time and enthusiasm for the summer jam".

I don't agree with that, The 'Fall jam' 2018 was great success, and had just as many entries if not more  as the 'summer jam' that same year. The year after @Spring hosted the 'Spring jam' where it didn't have as many entries, but still produced some great games and again i would say it was a success. Any thing that can use the resources here at OGA and boast OGA as a whole is a good thing for this community and OGA itself. OK, this years 'Fall jam' didn't get the entries, so would seem disapointing, but did it get the attention that the first 'Fall jam'?, did it get enough time for the word to spread before its start date?, Did that have an impact on entries? Quite possibly, or maybe noone had the time, or the timing was bad, as the fall jam this year didn't start at the same time it did the year before so i think it would be harsh to judge it or compare it to the year before. DON'T GIVE UP ON IT :)

Please, In no way am i digging you out about anything(or anybody else), if thats how it comes across, thats not what i'm saying. It takes commitment and time to set up events, and i can appreciate those efforts and endeavers.

It's a shame when our own commitments feel like they are not reciprecated. When participation is key and its low does make one think 'Is it worth it'. Unfortunatly this can be the beast, and IMO, think this is what leads to a lot of events at OGA starting and not not starting again, there on, there off because they feel the participation is not there. 

Ive been on OGA 5 years now, and what is clear to me is members come and go, sometimes they stay for a while, sometimes they only pop in month to month, maybe every 2 months, so this is another thing that can impact and does impact on events aswell. Thats just the way it is here. If we persevere and get into a routine of things and are of a more common thing then i'm sure participation will increase, but will obvouisly still vary from time to time.

The 'game jam' space could feel overcrowded, this is because noone really knows who's doing what and when, if we all got together and discussed who would like to do what and when then we could all work together to form something of a schedule and get it all spaced out evenly througnout the year and be more organised. :)

'Summer Jam' 1st July Hosted by chasersgaming (yearly) I'm more than prepared to move thedate of this jam to make space for a more evenly spread game jam occurance. :)

'Spring jam' ???????, ?????????, ???????? (Spring doing this?)

'Winter jam' ?????? Hosted by XomAdept (yearly) 4 weeks before jam host starts an art challenge?

'Fall jam' ?????? Hosted by withthelove (yearly) 4 weeks before jam host starts an art challenge?

then theres the normal art challenges every other months.

I don't want anyone to give up on the jams or challenges. if we get behind them and commit to them and get everything sorted we can really make a good go of them this year which would be good for OGA. :)

@chasersgaming true true. The benefit of seasonal jams is not having to wait much for the next jam if you miss one :) I like the sound of your scheduled yearly plan towards the end of your comment. Then if someone cant host the jam for whatever reason, there is time to organise another host possibly.... I would host or be on standby at least as soon as I get my head around the process :) I have little experience in these matters as of yet...

One thing I did notice about the last jam is that it didnt seem to appear on the home page like the summer jam did? That may have affected its discovery. It disappeared into the forum quite quickly.

I dunno.  I don't want to be a downer but I think there really is a certain magic to that Summer Jam.  I've seen more than one person post that they look forward to it each year.

My concern with running alot of jams is just spreading ourselves too thin.  I'm not sure how many participants the OGA community can draw for a jam, but it does seem like the less participation in each one we should expect.

that said, I'm game for trying another year's worth of seasonal jams.  I guess we might as well try it and see what happens.  The worst case is we get poor participation and then we know for sure that we should try running fewer jams in the next year.

I can host the Fall Jam again if that works for folks, be the third year in a row for me.

> One thing I did notice about the last jam is that it didnt seem to appear on the home page like the summer jam did?

This part is pretty critical, I thought the fall jam had appeared on the front page, but looking at the page today, I don't see it, just the Fall Art Challenge and the Summer Jam.
I'd say it's key to:

1) announce the Game Jams 1 month in advance

2) get them promoted on the OGA home page

I don't think there is anything 'magical' about the summer jam, but the one thing it is, is 'consistant' every year since it started back in 2017, so because of that its just become routine and perhaps it can be better planned for maybe and more are aware off its existance. The jam will continue to run regardless of particiption unless i can't do it for whatever reason.

Also, there may be some that do want to participate in an OGA jam, but maybe the summer isn't the right time for them, so i really like the idea of others holding other jams later on in the year to cater for those unable to participate in the summer jam, including myself, i cant enter the jam i host, well i could, but i wouldn't want to for rating purposes. Also other members of the community can get involved too if they wanted, and put their own spin on procedings, like your Fall jam operates differently than the summer jam. It's cool to have some variety. :) 

IMO, having seasonal jams is the best way i think without over doing it and can be evenly spaced out throughout the year.

We still as of this moment have no confirmation whether or not @XomAdept is going to run a 'Winter jam' or if @Spring is going to do a 'Spring' jam. (i hope they are OK) So as it stands we are only looking at two jams this year anyway (Summer & Fall). Unless Xom is planning on a Feb 1st start, at which case there isn't much time left to 'promote' it, but still doable. :) I hope we can get some clarity on those soon.

In the meantime i propose this schedule:

Spring Jam: April 1st (4weeks) *or however long the host wants to have it run

Summer Jam: July 1st(4 weeks)

Fall Jam: October 1st(4 weeks) *or however long the withthelove wants to have it run

Winter Jam: 1st Jan(4 weeks) *or however long the host wants to have it run

This gives 2 months between each jam, where the art challenges are/could be held in between, or even ongoing during jam periods, for those that want to contribute to the jam in some way without programming.(just through that in there) :)

Should Xom Adept & Spring not want to do the jams then we can leave them blank for now and not schedule them in the year. :)

That schedule works for me. 

Cool il post a thread shortly. :) When you ready i could add the art challenge dates/links :)

20 day time limit is pretty strict compared to the usual one month I feel,,, especially as these are some difficult ideas to pull off too...

I like the idea with the sea people though, but pulling off an RTS in that amount of time is... a challenge

@Xom Adept:  Here's a logo for you!

Let me know if you need it another size or anything.

Used:

https://opengameart.org/content/winter-holiday-2d-backgrounds

by

CraftPix.net 2D Game Assets

OGA-BY 3.0

and

https://opengameart.org/content/sara-oga

by

TAD

CC-BY 3.0

I think getting the time for an RTS would be hard no matter what...

if you want to extend the jam to 4 weeks then you can do that, its entirely up to you. :) for some, 3 weeks will be more than enough. Most jams are only a week, or even a couple of days. ;)

If a particiapnt wants to make a certain genre of game, and they know it will take longer than the time needed, then it's probably best to choose a different genre. OR just make a demo and do what you can, and get some feedback. Theres no rule that says the project HAS to be a full game. 

here is a ZX Spectrum version of the Banner :)

that's awesome!

when I get a minute, I'll do SMS and NES as well as  'Made For The..' variants of the banner.

Hows anybody doing so far? anybody want to share some screenshots or progress? :)

i'm having a go, experimenting, as you do. :)

heres a screen shot. ZX Spectrum style!

@chasersgaming:  that looks AMAZING!!!   You're Speccy skills 

I didn't think I was going to be able to get in on this jam, but...

I have actually been doing some engine work for the last few months, just rolling little bits and pieces from my different projects together and making them good and generic for future reuse, and am actually a good spot to fire off a small project just to prove out all the changes, and of course, to take a break from all this systems work and make something fun.

So with just 12 days left on the clock and an already overloaded schedule, I am thinking of jumping in the fray here, I just have one question:

@Xom Adept:  Do we have to make a game as specifically spelled out in the doc?   I see the rules say 'at least take inspiration from', so would it be ok if we took one of the ideas but kind of took it in a different direction?  Asking because with the limited time left, I was thinking of taking one of the RPG ideas and borrowing the setting and back story but making more of a simple action game out of the idea instead of a full on RPG.

@chasersgaming Wow! that looks awesome! A time warp to the 80's :)

@ZomBCool @withthelove thank you both fo rthe nice comments. i do like my retro things! I was very lucky to be born in the eighties. :)

I didn't think i would make this jam either, but im juggling a lot of things and hopefully i wont drop the ball. i like to think i have planned well, but il know soon enough by the end of the month. Look forward to seeing playing your games. Oh by the way withthelove, im using Danorders idea for a game, i have adapted the story a bit to fit my project, but the project is certainly inspired by his idea, so id say it should be OK, well i hope so, nothing i can change now. :)

My entry to the jam:

https://chasersgaming.itch.io/skelly

Thats a shame, i still would of tried it.

glad @withthelove got in there too, thought i was going to be the only one.

It would be nice if the community popped over the jam page and gave our games a try, and rate. Feedback is always apreciatted on projects such as these. i personally would like to continue on with my project throughout the year. :)

Well done guys!

@Xom Adept:  don't be too hard on yourself!   I just did a full playthrough and realized I messed up one of the jumps near the end of the game so you literally can't beat Scarfy right now.   My fault for chosing such an ambitious project and jumping in with only 1 week left.  It sounds like you went for something even more ambitious so I wouldn't feel too bad if you couldn't get it all done in a month.  

@Xom Adept, All part of the learning process my dude. Keep plugging away at the game. I am going to play em today guys. Looking forward to it :)

That skelly game actually looks very cool :3

I live streamed a play through on twitch and made a video about the jam.

https://youtu.be/xFGQ3PfLdCo

Great job with the games, they are both excellent :)

@ZomBCool:   Awesome!  Thanks for all the kind words!   And just to return the favor, that animated ZomBCool intro screen of  yours is AWESOME!  I love it!

Brilliant concept and should be a regular ;)

I felt like there was too little time for some of those ideas, many of which were extremely ambitious, otherwise it's a good concept :3

I liked it, I would defo do it again. As long as the ideas keep comming in then it should be cool to keep that 'theme' :)

It was a close one for sure :) congrats guys! Looking forward to some updates on both these games. Well done!

Congratulations withthelove!, another belting game from yourself. Well done. great game. :)

Thank you everyone that took the time to play and rate the games, and thanks to Xom Adept for hosting the jam. :)

Hi all!  Sorry for the slow response, the flu's been kicking butt all over my house for the past two weeks, so been busy taking care of my boys as well as laid up myself for a little bit.

that out of the way.

Thank you one and all for your kind words and ratings for Scarfy!

I started the project pretty late into the jam and had to publish it in a state I wasn't too proud of, so I'm glad you were all able to bear through the bugs and incompleteness to see what I was going for!

And as another way of saying thanks for sticking through the game's rough edges, I'm pleased to announce I've just released a special After Hours Jam Edition of Scarfy!  It brings in everything I'd originally hoped to get into the game as well as fixing the myriad of bugs in the Jam build.  To quote my own release notes, it "completes and improves on the Jam build in more ways than you can shake a scarf at!"

Interested parties can check it out for free here:

https://withthelove.itch.io/scarfy-the-penguin

All that said, this is one jam it was almost difficult to accept winning.  I LOVED Skelly!  Chasersgaming did an amazing job and I'd have been proud to lose to him on this one.

Maybe next time we can pool our talents and really show folks what we can do!  ;)

BTW I did enjoy the setup for this jam quite a bit.   It was great to have the different ideas to kind of bounce off of and get the creative juices flowing.  There were actually several ideas in there that I wanted to tackle, although I would second Spring's comments, alot of them were fairly ambitious for a one month Jam.  But with so many to chose from and the rules being flexible about letting folks take the ideas in different directions, I think it worked out fine.

Probably my only 'grow' would be that actually reading the list of ideas was a little bit of work.  One had to follow the link to the OGA page, download the submission, unzip it and then open the enclosed PDF.  Not a ridiculous amount of work, but would have been nice if the game ideas list could have been accessed directly from the itch.io page somehow.